Gohan's Return
by WingedFreedom622
Summary: Three years after Gohan's adventures in the world of the Shinobi, he casts aside his old world and goes back to Konohagakure to keep a promise. Just one problem. This time around, he's not alone. GohanXSakura. CH 10 up (finally)
1. Gathering

Disclaimer: Own nothing

CAUTION: Sequel to Gohan's Dilemma. If you haven't read Dilemma, then I suggest you do so to get up to speed.

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><p>Son Gohan yawned widely as he listened to the droning of his high school teacher, who was going on about the glories of sines, cosines, tangents, and all other manner of mathematical formulae that were, all in all, so mind-numbingly dull that it took all of Gohan's phenomenal concentration just to keep himself awake.<p>

A big part of that was owed to his father and Piccolo, who had been training with him ever since Majin Buu's reign of terror had been ended some time ago. Naturally the three warriors had beaten each other senseless into the wee hours of the morning and Gohan had only gotten a few hours of sleep.

He yawned again.

"Mr. Son," the teacher said with his nasally voice, hardly changing pitch from his last words to his current statement. Inflection was lost on this one. "Perhaps since you find this class so dull, you could work the next problem for me?" Gohan jerked awake, getting titters from his classmates. He stood up and took in the problem, sharp mind whirling at top speed as he looked over the problem and came up with an answer.

"Negative three," he said confidently.

"Now you see why you need to…" the teacher stopped dead in his tracks as he realized that Gohan had not only gotten the question right, but he'd done it mentally. Flummoxed by this latest feat of mental might by the transfer student, the teacher waved Gohan back to his seat as the class laughed, each student knowing that when it came to Son Gohan, you would be hard pressed to find a better person. His grades were top-notch, he regularly smoked the Phys. Ed test that left even members of the track team vomiting without breaking a sweat, and he was easy-going to top it all off.

The bell rang.

"For homework do pages 339-343," the teacher called over the din of students packing up to leave for the day. Groans met his ears as he wobbled out of class. That particular teacher was thin, reedy, and looked like a solid blast of wind would knock him over.

Gohan stood with the rest and stretched, leaning back until he felt a few bones in his back pop. He grunted with satisfaction.

"Way to show up the teacher, Gohan," Videl said as she faced him from the row in front.

Sharpner snorted. "Yeah. Way to go, bookworm," he fumed. "You're probably the reason we got so much homework in the first place!"

"That's not fair!" Eresa protested as the four headed out the classroom, down the hall and across the school grounds. "That guy's always been heavy on the homework! Gohan's answer had nothing to do with it!"

"So you say," Sharpner replied, not convinced.

They got to the gate and parted ways.

"Bye Gohan!" Videl and Eresa called as Sharpner gave a half-hearted wave.

Gohan waved back and walked away. As he strolled down the street, he stared up at the clouds, wishing he could just fly home, but he knew that he had to at least be beyond the city outskirts if he wanted to remain semi-invisible to the normal people in the town. Not many knew about Gohan's real power. The only ones who did know were Videl, Eresa, and Sharpner. The three of them had inexplicably retained their memories of everything that had happened during the couple of weeks that Majin Buu had run rampant on the Earth. Gohan guessed it had something to do with them being his friends but he really couldn't say for sure.

Either way, the young man was acutely aware that his time among his treasured friends was coming to an end. In another few weeks or so, he would finish collecting the Dragonballs and make the wish that would return him to Konohagakure, a village in an alternate dimension.

The Saiyan teen's eyes found the hitai-ate that he'd tied to the strap of his bag, slung over his shoulder. The blue headband was a treasured possession of his, something to remind him that yes that crazy adventure three years ago had been real and he hadn't been dreaming. Gohan's finger traced the shiny metal of the hitai-ate. He kept the hitai-ate meticulously cared for and, during his first week or so of school, had even gotten into a fight with a bully who'd tried to take it from him.

That bully no longer went to Orange Star High.

In the center of the metal plate that was attached to the navy blue fabric was a stylized engraving. The swirling pattern looked oddly like a leaf, which it was. The hitai-ate was an ID card of sorts, something that showed Gohan's attachment to the village of Konoha.

He smiled wistfully. Three years. Had it already been that long? Gohan could remember, quite clearly, the day when an accident at Capsule Corps had sent thirteen-year-old Gohan tumbling through time and space. The dimension Gohan had ended up in, quite by accident, had become a second home to the young man and he felt just as at home there as he did here, among his own family.

"I wonder how they're doing?" He wondered aloud, watching the clouds drift by overhead. He thought of all his friends, from Naruto, that rambunctious bundle of energy who was more tenacious than a bulldog, to the venerable old Sandaime Hokage, to the lecherous but strong Jiraiya, and everyone in between, but mostly his thoughts lingered on Haruno Sakura, a girl who'd admitted her feelings for him not long before he'd been whisked back to his own dimension by Shenlong, who'd created quite a stir in the village when his huge serpentine girth had appeared in the skies over the Hokage Monument.

A small part of him wondered why he was even bothering thinking about them, but Gohan knew the reason.

He had a promise to keep.

Three years ago, Uchiha Sasuke, a prodigy and one of only two remaining members of the Uchiha clan, had gone rogue and left the village. Naruto had been adamant about retrieving the runaway shinobi, called a missing-nin in the trade's lexicon, and returning him to Konoha, all because Sasuke was the first real friend Naruto had ever had.

Sakura, Gohan, and Kakashi had been much less enthusiastic about the whole idea, but they'd gone along with him, knowing that letting Naruto go after Sasuke alone was a very bad thing to do. Actually, the entire ordeal had come close to costing everyone their lives. Gohan still got goosebumps when he thought about his little run-in with the not-so-dead Orochimaru. That had pushed him to his limits and if it hadn't been for Sakura's timely interference and Gohan's Ascended Super Saiyan form, things might have gone very differently. In the end, the attempt to rescue Sasuke had been a failure and the Uchiha had escaped.

Not too long after that, Sakura had confessed to him, the two had begun a fledgling relationship, and Gohan had all but given up hope of ever seeing his family again, but he had come to the realization that living where he was wasn't such a bad thing and had come to accept it. That was when Shenlong had appeared, interrupting a festival, found Gohan, and whisked him back to his proper world, but not before Gohan had given Sakura and Naruto a promise that he would return in three years and they would go after Sasuke together.

It hadn't been a lie and so he'd thrown himself back into his training, which he'd neglected after he'd killed Cell and Bojack. Then there had been the incident with Majin Buu and now Gohan was stronger than ever, thanks to a ceremony that had released his full potential, something that was frightening when one stopped to think about just how much potential Gohan had, and to top it all off, Goku was back from the dead, thanks to a lucky combination of circumstances.

The father and son duo had lost no time in sparring with each other (at full power no less) and had driven each other to the very summit of their enormous power. Piccolo, not one to be outdone, had joined in on the act from the beginning at Gohan's request. He'd trained relentlessly with Gohan until Goku's revival and the conclusion of the Majin Buu incident. At first it had been an exercise in futility on Piccolo's part but that had long since changed and the Namekian was now able to routinely hold his own against the two saiyans.

Gohan made it to the outskirts and blasted into the sky, going home for the day.

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><p>Two weeks later, Gohan was hovering over an active volcano, frowning down at the Dragon Radar he held in his hand. Below him, the volcano spewed ash and lava into the sky and more molten rock sloughed down its sides. The teenager sighed heavily. It would have to be here, wouldn't it? The Dragonballs were seven mystical orbs, made of some orangish substance that could possibly be described as glass or crystal. Inside each ball was a star, numbered on through seven stars. When all seven were gathered, the Eternal Dragon Shenlong could be summoned and two wishes made. It didn't matter the wish. The Dragon had been used to grant everything from the world's softest pair of panties to restoring the Earth to her rightful place in the heavens and reviving all the population that went with it.<p>

After its task was complete, the Dragon would leave and the Dragonballs would scatter to the ends of the Earth for one year and turn to stone, after which they could be gathered again and Shenlong could be summoned and the process would be repeated. Now Gohan was collecting the balls on his own time so he could return himself to the dimension that held Konoha and his other group of friends.

The problem was that it seemed the balls never landed in places that were easy to get to, or survive for that matter. Case in point was this one. The four star ball, the one that Gohan and his family treasured above all else, was sitting in the middle of an erupting volcano. The small resort town on the island had long since been evacuated and the lava was currently eating a path through the jungle towards it. Gohan sighed as he landed on the lip of the volcanoes crater, watching pumice and chunks of rock fly over his head and thud down the slope.

"It had to be a volcano," Gohan groaned. "Why couldn't it land in the middle of the tropics?" He shrugged and tucked the radar securely into the special carrying case Bulma had made for it in her spare time. The case was a godsend here because it could withstand the rigors of the ocean floor all the way to the chills of the arctic and the searing heat of the desert. It was a safe bet that the case could withstand a volcano too right?

Gohan took a deep breath and poised on the edge of the volcano.

He dove headfirst into the boiling cauldron of rock and smoke.

Gohan sprawled on the beach a few hours later, breathing hard, a small orange-yellow ball resting serenely on the white sands next to him. Rising above stood the volcano, looking just as it had only a little while before, except the crater wasn't smoking. Gohan's clothes were burned and he had singe marks all over his body from close calls with lava and other hot objects.

"Oh man! I thought I was done for sure!" he gasped as he sat up and picked up the Dragonball, which, despite all it had been through inside the volcano, was cool to the touch and unblemished. "But I got the 4-star ball!" He retrieved a cloth bag from a rock in the surf, figuring that the water would be the best place to put the other five while he went after the next one.

He opened it and grinned at his distorted reflection in the shiny surfaces of the other five. The five balls were pulsing in time with each other, something that they did when two of the balls got within a few feet of each other. Gohan dropped the newly-acquired four-star ball into the pouch with its fellows and closed the flap.

"And that makes six!" he crowed. Gohan's ki flared up around him as a blue-white aura of flame and he blasted off from the island, rocketing up into the sky and away from the island. He looked down as he left and grinned when he saw the blown out backside of the flaming mountain. That had been the work of a fast Kamehameha because Gohan didn't feel like going out the hard way.

Then the island became nothing but a brown-green speck in the sapphire sea and he was gone.

* * *

><p>"No!" Chichi said adamantly. "I refuse!"<p>

"Mom," Gohan started to say.

"No means no, Gohan!" Chichi turned from wiping dishes to glare at her eldest son. Gohan had just come back from somewhere that involved fire and smoke. Chichi could smell the singed hair and burnt clothing on him, even after a long and vigorous shower to try and wash the stink off. "I'm not allowing my baby boy to go off to some other dimension and consort with people I haven't even met!"

"But I told you, Mom, there're good people there!" Gohan protested. Both mother and son had a set to their shoulders and bodies that would've told the uneducated that this was a long-standing argument. In fact, it had been going on for the last three years, ever since Gohan had announced his plans to return to that world and that he was not coming back this time around. Naturally, Gohan's overprotective mother Chichi had been one thousand percent against it and Gohan, contrary to what he normally did when it came to his mom, wasn't backing down.

"You've almost died! You've been tortured, attacked, and been put into situations that can't be healthy for you! I'm not letting you go back there, Gohan!"

Goten and Goku were sitting at the table, each stuffing their faces, watching the argument go back and forth, heads swiveling like they were at a tennis match.

"But I promised them! I promised I would return in three years and we would go after Sasuke together! I can't just leave them hanging!"

"That was a lie and you know it, Gohan," Chichi retorted. "You don't belong there."

"And I belong here?" Gohan all but shouted. An uncomfortable silence followed his words but Gohan knew that there was no going back now, even if he did feel bad about it. "Mom, I don't fit in here and you know it! Everyone's saved the world more times than I can count and it's still not enough! I have to hide my powers at school and I have to pretend to be something I'm not. I'm getting sick of it!"

"And what's so different about that place?" Chichi asked. That place. It was Chichi's term for the world that held Konoha. She refused to call Konoha by name, or any of the other places Gohan had told them all about for that matter. No one was quite sure of the reason, but there were days that Gohan wondered if it wasn't a ploy on her part to get him to forget everything and be content with going to school and becoming what Chichi wanted.

In another world, another life, and another mindset, Gohan would've done exactly that. He would've let himself slip, let his powers weaken, and go to school like a good little boy. But that trip to Konoha, though brief, only a couple of months, had changed Gohan forever. Naruto, Sakura, Kakashi, Sasuke, Jiraiya, Tsunade, Shizune, Sarutobi, Itachi, Kisame, Orochimaru, Kabuto, and all the rest had left their mark on Gohan. They'd shown him what he had to become to protect the world, to protect those he loved and cared about. In some way they'd inexorably and undeniably sculpted Gohan into the man he'd become.

"They're the same, Mom! Everyone in Konoha, they all have abilities, just like we do! They manipulate the elements, clone themselves, fight with strategies so complex I still don't understand most of them, and all kinds of other things. I don't have to hide who I am! They accept me, care about me, love me, and welcome me as a valued part of the village! I miss that! I miss not hiding!"

"Gohan you are not going and that's final!"

"I'm going whether you like it or not!" Gohan shouted. Again there was that horrible silence and Chichi looked really hurt this time. Gohan instantly regretted his words but knew that there was no turning back now. He would go. He had no other choice. He owed it to everyone he'd left behind in that world.

Gohan turned on his heel and walked out of the kitchen.

"Son Gohan you get back here this instant!" Chichi roared.

The slamming of Gohan's door was the only answer she got.

"Goku!" Chichi said, rounding on her husband. "Do something about that boy!"

Goku shrugged. "Like what?" He asked.

"Go up there and tell him that he needs to listen to his mother!"

"But Chichi," Goku replied, "every kid moves out of the house at some point or another. Gohan's no different."

"Most kids don't move to other dimensions!" Chichi all but screamed. "I'm not going to let him leave and go somewhere where I'll never see my little boy again!"

"Gohan's becoming his own man," Goku replied. "None of us can stop that any more than we can stop the sun from rising."

"But…"

"I think it's best if we let Gohan do what he wants," Goku said firmly, in an unusual display of parental force. "It's not our decision to make. And," he added, "Gohan's not doing it because he's a rebellious kid or anything. It's because he made a promise to some friends and he intends to keep that promise. If that means he has to go away and maybe never come back, then I think I'm more proud of the person he's grown up to be than angry about his decision to follow his heart." Goku grinned his innocent Son grin that had been passed from father to both sons. "Right?"

Chichi blinked, surprised at the intelligent words that had come from her too-often naïve husband and finally smiled. "Idiot," she said affectionately. "Sometimes I wondered why I married you."

Goku's grin widened and Chichi kissed his forehead then smacked Goten as the kid made loud retching noises.

Gohan sat on his bed, the six gathered Dragonballs strewn on the floor in front of him, each pulsing in time with its brothers. A soft beeping filled the dark room as the Dragon Radar on Gohan's lap picked up the six balls and then the one remaining one. Gohan felt horrible about the fight with his mother but he'd meant what he said. He was really going back to Konoha and was really going to help Naruto and the others get Sasuke back from wherever he was.

Gohan was debating when he should go get his last ball and make the wish right then. It was getting close to the three year to the day mark since he'd been pulled away from Konoha. Naruto had been talking about going on a training trip with Jiraiya to get ready to go after Sasuke and Sakura was apprenticed to Tsunade, the Godaime Hokage, to achieve the very same ends. Gohan himself, instead of wishing himself back immidiatly like he'd first intended, had been talked into staying home for three years to train as well.

It seemed that getting the next ball sooner rather than later would be the way to go. Gohan nodded to himself. He would go get the next ball next weekend and summon the dragon soon after that, after he'd made his reparations, said good-bye to everyone he wanted to say good-bye to, and gotten his stuff packed up and ready to go. He felt sad about leaving everyone behind for what could very well be the last time, but this was what he wanted to do and no one was going to stop him from doing it.

* * *

><p>The next weekend came quickly and departed just as fast and by the end of it, Gohan had the seventh Dragonball in his collection at his house. Almost as if Shenlong himself were wishing Gohan good luck, the seventh ball had been near Master Roshi's house. Gohan had collected the ball and said his good-byes to the old pervert hermit, or Ero-sennin as Gohan had taken to calling him as a reminder of Naruto's penchant for nicknaming people, Krillin, Eighteen, their daughter, and Turtle.<p>

Now it was Monday and Tuesday was the day Gohan had decided to use the Dragonballs to take himself back to Konoha. There was just one problem with his plans and that was saying good-bye to his friends at school. He knew Videl harbored more than simple friendly affection for him, something she'd tried to act on at one point or another but Gohan had had to turn her away. After all, he was kind of involved with Sakura, which he'd explained to Videl, but made it sound like Sakura lived in another country in this world instead of an entirely different dimension.

"Thank you," the receptionist said to Gohan as he handed over all of his paperwork to complete his withdraw from Orange Star High School. Gohan nodded and left the office, checking both ways in the hall before stepping out. He kind of hoped that he didn't see any of his friends after school today because of what was going on.

"Gohan! There you are!"

Gohan winced. It was Videl and the others, coming down the stairs at the end of the hallway. Oh well. There was no denying it now.

"What're you doing in the principal's office?" Sharpner asked. "Get too many As or something?"

"Not exactly," Gohan said with a small chuckle as they left school together.

"Well then what were you doing in there?"

"Withdrawing."

He kept going, well aware that his friends had all stopped dead in their tracks and were staring at him like he'd grown a second head.

"Withdrawing?" Eresa repeated.

"Now?" Videl added.

"It's the middle of the school year!" Sharpner finished.

"Yeah, I know."

"So what's the deal?" Videl asked as they trotted to catch up to Gohan again. "Is something bad happening in the world again?"

Gohan laughed. "No, it's nothing like that, it's just that I have to leave now."

"Leave? Where're you going?" Eresa asked.

"Away," Gohan replied. "Maybe for good."

"You're leaving for good?" Videl asked, looking hurt. Gohan tried not to see it but it was kind of hard to ignore. He nodded mutely. "Why?"

"A promise I made," he replied. "One made three years ago. I have a friend who's in trouble and I promised the others that I would go help out."

"This is about that Sakura girl, isn't it?" Videl prodded.

"Somewhat, yeah. She's gonna be there to help me finish this."

"So?" Eresa said. "Go help her, then come back. It should be a piece of cake for someone like you."

"Yeah. You're the guy who can fly faster than a speeding bullet and all that, remember?" Sharpner added.

"I wish it was that easy," Gohan replied. "See the thing is, the place where I'm going isn't exactly nearby. I've…gotta go to another dimension." The three traded dumbstruck looks.

"Say what?" Videl asked. "Another dimension?"

"Come on, bookworm," Sharpner said dismissively. "Even for you that's stretching the truth."

"It is the truth."

"Okay then, prove it."

Gohan pointed wordlessly at the hitai-ate tied to his back, a curiosity that all his friends had wondered about at one point or another but Gohan had never really explained. He'd usually avoided the question by pointing out the weather or some other feeble excuse.

"That doesn't prove anything," Videl told him.

Gohan pulled open his bag and produced a small wallet, barely big enough for an ID card, much less money or something like that. He flipped it open and showed everyone the photo on the inside. It was a picture of Gohan, three years younger than he was now, Naruto, Sakura, Jiraiya and Kakashi all at Ichiraku Ramen. A teetering stack of empty bowls sat between Naruto and Gohan. It was nighttime in the photo but there was clearly a festival going on.

Sakura was arm in arm with Gohan and Naruto was climbing over their shoulders, his hand in Jiraiya's face. Kakashi wore his typical jounin uniform, his erotic book Icha Icha Paradise in hand. The three kids in the picture were grinning, clearly having a grand old time and Kakashi looked bored. The only person not in the picture was Umino Iruka, the chuunin instructor at the Shinobi Academy and that was only because he was the one taking the picture.

"Naruto, Kakashi, Jiraiya and Sakura," Gohan said, pointing to each in turn as Videl, Eresa and Sharpner all crammed together to stare at the picture, trying to bore holes through it with their eyes they were looking at it so intently. "There is supposed to be another guy there too. His name is Uchiha Sasuke."

"So where is he?" Eresa asked.

"Gone," Gohan answered. "He ran away from the village and left everyone he cared about by the wayside, all to get greater power for himself. Naruto and Sakura were closer to him than I was so they took it harder and Naruto decided he's going to bring Sasuke back."

"Is that a bandage on your arm?" Videl asked, peering closer at the photo.

"It is," Gohan replied, pulling up the cuff of his shirt and showing them a small faded scar on the outside of his arm. "This was taken just after we went after Sasuke to get him back. We failed and he got away. About ten minutes after this was taken, Bulma used the Dragonballs to wish me back to this world. Before I left, I made them a promise that I would return in three years and we would all go after Sasuke again, when we were stronger and better able to deal with the challenges."

"And it's been three years since then?" Eresa asked.

Gohan nodded. "I've spent the last three years getting ready to return to that world and keep my end of the bargain. I got the last Dragonball last weekend and I'm leaving tomorrow night." He put the picture away.

"So that's it?" Videl asked. "This is good-bye?"

Gohan nodded, not meeting her eyes. "Yeah. Sorry."

"Well, that's just like you, Gohan," Eresa said with a grin. "When you give your word about something, you always keep it!"

Videl nodded in agreement as did Sharpner. Gohan hugged Videl and Eresa and clapped Sharpner on the back, nearly sending him face first into the dirt. "Well, I gotta get going," Gohan said. "I've got a lot to get done before I leave tomorrow and I don't have a lot of time to do it in."

"Right. Well, see you around Gohan."

"Yeah. See you guys."

Gohan drifted away into the air, his three friends waving up at him. He waved farewell in return, then turned and streaked off into the setting sun. He tried hard to forget the hurt and accusing look in Videl's eyes.

* * *

><p>Gohan wasn't completely ready to leave until very late the next night. When he finished packing the last of his belongings into a large sack, he fished out a capsule, threw it at the bundle of possessions and it all vanished in a burst of smoke. He scooped up the tiny little pill with a plunger on the top of it and stowed it in a small white case where three or four others resided. The only thing left in the room were the seven Dragonballs, which Gohan scooped up into his arms and carried outside. He arranged them into a circle with one in the center. Now the seven orbs were pulsing in time with greater frequency and brightness, like they were the representation of Shenlong's heartbeat and the dragon was aware that he'd be called very soon.<p>

"So you're really going through with it?"

"Hey Piccolo."

The Namekian in question dropped out the black night sky, landing next to his student and old friend.

"You're really returning to that world?"

"Yeah. I have a promise to keep and I'm not gonna break it now."

Piccolo nodded. "I had a feeling you'd say that." The tall warrior clapped Gohan on the shoulder. "I had fun with you kid," he said finally. "I'm gonna miss having you around."

"And I'm going to miss everyone here too," Gohan replied.

"Good luck out there son," Goku said coming out of the house with Goten standing in the doorway, dressed for bed. "I'm proud of you."

"I know."

"I'm proud of you too," Chichi added, coming over and giving her son a hug. "Go and do what you have to do Gohan." She turned back to Goten. "Alright. Bed mister."

"Aw Mom!" Goten whined. "I wanna see the dragon!"

"Bed!" Chichi commanded, herding him back into the house.

"Bye Gohan!"

"Bye Goten!" Gohan took a deep breath. "Okay. Guess we'd better get started then." He faced the Dragonballs. "Come out Shenlong!"

Light burst from the seven balls and lit up Mt. Paozu like the surface of the sun. Dark clouds formed overhead, blotting out the stars under a heavy blanket of inky black. Lightning began to skitter across the clouds, flashing back and forth with greater and greater intensity. The storm built in intensity and power until a torrent of blinding light burst out of the Dragonballs and climbed into the sky, growing ever longer and thicker the higher it went.

Piccolo, Goku, and Gohan shielded their eyes from the display as they tried to remain upright against the rushing winds that were howling across the mountain range that Gohan's home was a part of. All around animals fled the onslaught of wind and light, their instincts telling them that what was happening now was nothing to be trifled with.

The dragon took on a more corporeal form, the light beginning to dim into Shenlong's serpentine shape. A pair of glowing crimson eyes opened where Shenlong's head had taken form. The light vanished like someone had flicked a switch and there sat Shenlong the Eternal Dragon in all his glory. The dragon's power was palpable in the air, so heavy and obvious that it was like the humidity in the area was through the roof.

"**Speak now!"** The dragon commanded, his timeless voice rolling across the mountains and back again. **"State your two wishes and it shall be so!"** The dragon's bottomless eyes found Gohan as he stepped forward.

"Shenlong!" Gohan called up to him. "I wish to be returned to the dimension that harbors the place called Konohagakure!"

The Dragon's eyes lit up from within, like embers from the heart of the sun. The great beast's breath rumbled outward, rolling over the three lesser mortals like blast of wind from a hurricane. This happened several more minutes before Shenlong's eyes quit glowing and Gohan could feel it looking at him again. Piccolo noticed that it took a lot less time than it had the first time around. **"I have found the world you speak of. You wish to travel to this place, is this your wish?"**

"It is! Please make it so!" Gohan shouted back up at him.

"**Very well. I shall grant this wish!"**

The Dragon's eyes glowed again and Gohan was outlined in bright red light. He looked down at his hands as they began to turn translucent and fade away. The fading began to spread up his arms and began to travel up his feet as well. Gohan smiled sadly at his vanishing body. He turned and faced his father and mentor.

"Well," he said, his voice echoing, as if he was already partially across the dimensions, "I guess this is good-bye for good."

"Yeah," Piccolo said. "Maybe we'll see you again."

"Maybe," Gohan replied, though they both knew that the eldest son of Goku would, in all likelihood, not be back to his own dimension again. Gohan was almost entirely gone now. He looked like a ghost and was fading by the second. Piccolo could see the dragon and the mountains on the other side of Gohan with almost no problem. They watched until Gohan vanished like leaves in the wind.

"I guess that's it," Piccolo said.

"Yep," Goku agreed.

"We should dismiss the dragon now."

"Still," Goku went on, ignoring Piccolo. "I wish we could go with him! I'd love to see that dimension!"

Neither caught the slip up in words until Shenlong spoke again.

"**Very well. I shall grant this wish!"**

"What!" Goku and Piccolo shouted together as they too were illuminated by red light and they too began to fade. They looked at each other and then over themselves. They were vanishing just as fast as Gohan had only seconds before.

"Shenlong!" Piccolo called in an echoing voice. "Cancel the wish! Cancel it!" Piccolo continued to shout at Shenlong to stop the wish right up until Goku vanished. "SHENL…"

Piccolo too vanished without a trace.

The only people left who'd borne witness to what had transpired were the Eternal Dragon and Chichi, who'd been watching the occurrence from the second story window when she'd heard Piccolo shouting something about canceling a wish. She'd come to the window just in time to see Piccolo vanished like a wraith in the night.

"**Your wishes have been granted,"** the dragon rumbled. **"Farewell!"**

He vanished in a second blast of light. The seven Dragonballs lifted into the air, spinning slowly before scattering, streaking over the horizon as amber comets.

They were stone even before they cleared Mt. Paozu.

* * *

><p>Return's here! Stick around. Chapter Two will be up momentarily.<p> 


	2. Return and Revenge

Disclaimer: Own nothing

* * *

><p>Sakura ran through the streets of Konoha, her heart pounding in her chest. Around her, explosions were touching off like they were going out of style. The village seemed like it was an inferno, though she knew that the damage was actually pretty minor. The person responsible for the damages was only aiming to confuse and distort the situation, not go for any kind of serious body count.<p>

She skidded around a corner, slapping the wall and anchoring her palm with chakra before dashing to the end of the alley, darting right up the side of the wall. She sprang onto the rooftop, paused to gather herself, then leaped onto a telephone pole that ran electric lines across Konoha.

The wind whipped her hair around as more explosions touched off. The causes were yellow streaks of deadly light that came down from the cold gray sky above. It was the tail end of the Fire Country rain season and the passing season was threatening to get in one more downpour before finally allowing the sun to shine regularly for the first time in months.

"Kukukahahahahaha!"

She could just barely hear the mad laughter on the winds, which were growing fiercer as the minutes went on. All around rose palls of flame and smoke, each one marking the impact site of a ki blast. Sakura scowled. The only person she knew that could use ki besides Orochimaru was her…boyfriend, for lack of a better word, Son Gohan, an extredimensional traveler who had happened on their little world three years ago and proceeded to turn it upside down and inside out. He had been frightfully powerful, but even his tremendous might and not one but two Super Saiyan transformations hadn't been enough to counter the power Orochimaru had granted himself through inhuman experiments.

Orochimaru, for his part, looked just the same as he did when he had revealed himself at the Valley of the End after a month or so of being presumed dead, at Gohan's hands no less. His face was still snake-like, with a pointed jaw, slits for a nose, widow's peak and hair like steel fibers, and the octagonal scale patches on his skin. He was wearing that same outfit from that day, a black uniform of combat fatigues and vest, complete with black leather jackboots and a tanto stuck into his belt within easy reach of one taloned hand. Those hands were currently pointing at her beloved village, flashing as he shot down death into the panicked throngs below. Shinobi were trying to force an evacuation of the civilians, which included Sakura's own parents, but were having a tough time of it, made all the harder by Orochimaru having further refined his ki abilities in the years since they'd last seen him.

The biggest clue was that he was flying as Gohan used to, hovering hundreds of feet up, beyond the range of shuriken and most ninjutsu techniques. The only thing that could reach him would be big jutsu, which could be avoided, and the greater summons like Katsuyu, the slug summon of Sakura's master, the Godaime Hokage Tsunade, and Gamabunta, the toad summon of Tsunade's comrade and friend, Jiraiya the Gama Sennin, who was not in the village at the moment.

"Sakura!"

She turned around at the call. Sarutobi, the old and venerable Sandaime Hokage, landed next to her. The man was old, his hair grayed and receding, his flesh wrinkled and covered in liver spots, but his movements were anything but old. He moved like a man thirty years his junior and his dark eyes reflected years of wisdom and strength. He was retired, no longer an active shinobi but an advisor to the Hokage, but apparently he had never gotten the memo about being retired. He wore his combat armor, a black, loose outfit with arm guards and the symbol for fire on his back. His hitai-ate, sporting the Konoha leaf, was in place on his head, the long ties streaming behind him. He'd shortened them. Once they'd dragged on the ground, they were so long, but now they only hung to his waist.

They whipped like Sakura's hair in the growing winds.

"Sarutobi-san! What're you…"

"It's not safe here," Sarutobi said sharply, cutting her off. "Tsunade wants you. Something about running a message to the chuunin running the evacuation and getting them to 'hurry the hell up' were her exact words."

"What about Orochimaru?" Sakura demanded, pointing up at the figure overhead.

Sarutobi's expression was stony determination. "I'll handle him," he said, biting into his hand until blood flowed, running down his palm. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" A seal array spread out from his palm, a lightning-fast wriggling of black lines that spewed smoke. When it cleared, Enma the Monkey King was standing beside the old Hokage. There was no communication needed between the two old comrades. Enma struck a pose.

"Henge!" the white human-sized monkey called. He changed in a burst of smoke, a dark green staff with gold end caps spiraling into the air, lading firmly in Sarutobi's palm. "Kongonyoi!" Sarutobi spun the staff through several easy weapons routines, testing the weapon's balance. It showed that though he was old, he was far from helpless. The staff danced effortlessly, so much so that Sarutobi didn't even seem to be touching it.

"Go, Sakura," he said with an authority that left no room for argument.

"Yes sir," she said to the man who had become a kind of grandfather to her as well as a part-time sensei, for the times when Tsunade had been too busy to teach her. He had shown Sakura techniques like the Kage Bunshin, which had come in most handy for those times when Tsunade had swamped her with tasks and errands, and various Doton jutsu to go with her affinity. "Good luck."

"Thank you," he said, distracted. He pointed the end of the staff up at Orochimaru. "Enma!"

"Yes sir!"

The end of the staff shot out like a bullet, streaking into the sky. Sakura saw it hit Orochimaru squarely in the cheek and then she was gone, leaping across the rooftops, heading for the spire in the center of the village that marked the Hokage's Tower.

* * *

><p>Sakura found Tsunade, received the message, and was on her way to deliver it when something crashed to earth in front of her. Sakura screamed despite herself, but her body sprang back, putting distance between her and the object. When the dust settled, she realized with a thrill of horror that it was Sarutobi! A pair of black jackboots were standing in front of him. Sakura's heart started pounding as she followed the boots up to the tanto then up from there to the wallowing tongue of Orochimaru, the purple-slimed appendage roiling as if it had a life of its own. It sucked back in, vanishing in a blink and Orochimaru grinned. His grin spread to the corners of his mouth, revealing serrated fangs, then went further, stretching from ear to ear, though Orochimaru no longer had ears to speak of. His teeth was coated was a sheen of purple saliva, which Sakura knew was a poison so lethal that it could dissolve the very ground as if it was wet paper.<p>

"Well, well, well," Orochimaru crooned, his voice velvet, his serpentine golden eyes merciless and humorless, despite the grin on his face. "What have we here? You're Kunoichi-chan, aren't you?" He leered as he looked her up and down. "You've matured since I saw you last."

Sakura swallowed twice to get rid of the dry feeling in her mouth and didn't reply, not trusting her voice. He remembered her! Good God, he _remembered_! That singular thought, more than any other, cemented Sakura's resolve and spurned her limbs into motion. Her fist cracked out. Her form was flawless, a combination of Tsunade and Gohan's relentless training, her fist backed by the chakra enhancements that Tsunade had taught her to boost her strength and the resolve that Gohan had taught her to instill into those fists.

Orochimaru caught her fist easily, but didn't expect the strength behind it and was blown right off his feet. Sakura knew she he wouldn't underestimate her like that again and sent her fingers to sealing, folding a series of seals taught to her by the man on the ground before her now. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Four identical copies of Sakura appeared, each glaring at Orochimaru. Four clones was just about her max for combat. She had only done twenty before in training and hadn't dared to attempt more. Too many more than that and she would spread her chakra too thin and kill herself.

It aggravated her to no end that she, with proper control and chakra to spare, could create only twenty, but Naruto, that blockheaded teammate of hers could create a hundred times that amount with no control at all and still have enough to do high-level jutsu like the Rasengan and Kuchiyose.

_Concentrate, Haruno!_ She commanded herself as Orochimaru emerged from the smoke where he'd smashed into a house. The Sannin stopped, looking over each Sakura with a wary gaze. "Oh ho?" he said. "Kage Bunshin. Very impressive, Kunoichi-chan."

"My name is Sakura!" One of the Sakuras shouted angrily. "Get it right, dammit!"

A kunai buried itself in that Sakura's forehead, popping the clone. The rest swarmed Orochimaru. It wasn't a mobbing like it would have been with Naruto's two thousand-strong horde, but it was enough to put Orochimaru on his heels. Sakura pushed relentlessly, much more strategic about her attacks than Naruto would be, which was the idea. She couldn't match him in stamina and sheer chakra amount, perhaps, but she was a hell of a lot more precise than the blond.

Every punch that Sakura threw was designed to hit a vital spot on Orochimaru and that attack always came in from a blind spot created from a sudden flurry of feints from all her other clones. Orochimaru's face went from amused to snarling after only a few near-misses. Finally, it seemed the Sannin had enough. A blow to one clone tore it right in half, popping it instantly. One received a kunai to the eye and the other had its neck broken. Sakura, setting up for another vital attack was struck by the ruthless manner in which her clones had been dealt with and hesitated for only a second.

In that second, Orochimaru had her by the throat, squeezing the air from her lungs. She struggled to take a breath, but couldn't. Her hear pounded in her head, ears filled with a dull roaring noise. Black spots began to dance in her vision and her struggles were growing ever more feeble. She lashed out with one more kick, trying to catch the snake in the groin, but missed and scraped the outside of his thigh instead. She only had enough time to berate herself for her stupidity and then she was more concerned with breathing and staying conscious. As her eyes began to roll and found the sky, she realized the clouds were many times darker than they had been and were beginning to get tendrils of lightning dancing through them.

Sakura thought it looked familiar but in her dazed, disjointed, state of mind, she had no idea where she had seen the spectacle. She thought she heard someone calling her name, but when she tried to answer, the words wouldn't come.

The world was going black.

Everything was so far away.

BOOM!

Wind, cold and sweet, rushed into her starving lungs. Sakura coughed violently, heaving great breaths. She waited a second for her mind to clear, for her body to get the oxygen it so desperately needed. Someone was helping her up, forcing her to stand. She looked up and found herself staring into a pair of bright cerulean eyes. She flinched back, but the person kept a firm grip on her.

"Sorry, Sakura," Naruto said as he held her steady. "You're alright now."

Sakura's mind caught up with her instincts. "Na…Naruto?" She asked, taking in the blonde's whisker marks on his cheeks, his spiky yellow hair, and intense blue eyes. "Is that you?"

Naruto grinned his megawatt fox grin. "Yep!" he said confidently. Sakura looked her old friend over. He'd grown taller while he'd been gone. Now at sixteen, Naruto was literally head and shoulders above his old self. His outfit was more muted. Before he'd worn a garishly orange outfit, but now the orange was a shade or two darker, less ostentatious, and offset by a generous amount of black. His hitai-ate had changed as well. It sported long ties that fell to his shoulders and it too was black, unlike his last one that had been a dark navy blue.

"When did you…How did you?" Sakura didn't seem to be able to form complete sentences, she was so surprised to see him.

"We just got back," Naruto answered. "Ero-Sennin went to see the Old Hag, I think, and I decided to go looking for you." His blue eyes took on a serious tone that Sakura had never seen in him before. She'd seen Naruto determined, angry, sad, happy, and all other emotions. Never had she seen him simply flick a mental switch and get serious like this.

Orochimaru stalked forward. He cackled humorlessly when he saw who'd attacked him. "Uzumaki Naruto-kun," he said, voice dangerous. The Snake Sannin didn't have his trademark smirk on his face and his abdomen bore the distinctive wounds of a Rasengan hit. "You've returned."

Naruto grinned confidently. "Damn straight," he answered. "Don't think I've forgotten that cheap shot I owe you." He made a very familiar cross-shaped hand seal. "I'm gonna pay you back a thousand times over! Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

In an instant, a thousand clones were everywhere. They stood on light poles, telephone poles, rooftops, walls, and clogged alleyways and streets for as far as the eye could see.

"More clones," Orochimaru snared distastefully. "I'm so very tired of fighting these accursed things." He crouched, legs bunching. "I think I'll take them out all at once!" The ground under Orochimaru splintered as the Sannin roared into the sky, shrouded in a blue-white comet of ki. Sakura could just make him out, a black speck against a screen of equally black rotating clouds. It was easy to see him when he became a point of glowing blue-white light.

"Oh no," Sakura whispered, recognizing it. "No, not that technique. Please don't kill us with that." She knew her pleas would go unanswered. The last thing she wanted to happen to her was to die by the very technique that had always inspired hope and awe in her.

"It's a Kamehameha," Naruto whispered angrily, his fist clenching in sudden realization. Orochimaru was too high up to hit easily and by the time Naruto got his clones organized to get to him, it would be over. "Dammit!"

"KAMEHAMEHAAAAAAA!"

The attack roared down. Sakura watched helplessly as the ki blast sped for them, fast as light, more deadly than Death himself. There was no time to run, no time to fight. She could only look on as blue-white oblivion sped for her. The only thing Sakura could allow herself to do was to watch her end come like a true shinobi, unflinching, giving her life in the defense of the village. She only regretted that she couldn't take Orochimaru with her.

The blast howled down and Sakura flinched away, so help her, she looked away like a coward. The last thing to fill her mind was Gohan's face during that night on the Hokage Monument when they'd decided to change their relationship for the better. She remembered his arms, solid and safe, around her, remembered the comfort of laying her head on his shoulder, the softness of his lips on hers.

The blast was howling, the wind was whipping, and Sakura knew she would die now. The wind threw grit and dust around, stinging like a million bug bites. She was practically deaf from the screaming ki and could feel the searing heat of it. She sat there for an eternity and began to wish that it would hurry the hell up and kill her already. The waiting was worse than the death itself.

She wasn't sure how long she sat there. The Kamehameha howled and roared but never seemed to get any closer. Finally, both Sakura and Naruto risked a peek. And did they ever get an eyeful.

Shock ripped through both Naruto and Sakura as they saw just what had stopped the deadly blast.

"Gohan?" Sakura breathed. Sure enough, standing in the way of the Kamehameha, feet braced, arms out, was Son Gohan. His teeth were bared in a fierce grimace, a vein bulging in his neck and temple.

"G-Gohan?" Naruto echoed.

Sakura's neck cricked as she snapped her head up, looking at the sky. Sure enough, the clouds were spinning as if in a tornado, but instead of a tornado, a hole had opened in the sky, a hole that drooled scarlet light. The Eternal Dragon Shenlong, a creature of terrific power from Gohan's world, had come to them in much the same manner, granting a wish to return Gohan to his world and before that, Gohan had first come to them the same way.

* * *

><p>High up, Orochimaru frowned, still concentrating on the Kamehameha. He'd thought it would be sweet irony to finish those two meddlesome ninja with the very technique that Gohan had used to give the Sannin the vicious chest wound that he still bore the scars from. Instead, a bolt of gold light had shot from the hole in the sky off to Orochimaru's right and landed right in front of the attack. Now it was like Orochimaru was trying to push his hand through a brick wall. There was something on the other end of the strike, blocking it, keeping it from exploding and wiping out Naruto-kun, Kunoichi-chan, and probably a good part of the village.<p>

"What's going on?" He wondered.

* * *

><p>Gohan's feet skidded a foot or two backwards before the saiyan set his feet and stopped again. "He's gotten better," Gohan muttered to himself, though the other two heard him. His gritted teeth turned into a smirk. "But…so…have…I!" With a roar, Gohan balanced the energy ball on one hand, drew back with the other, and delivered a heavy blow that shook the air.<p>

The Kamehameha burst apart into a thousand blue and white sparks that faded harmlessly into the air. Orochimaru recoiled when something blew his attack away, the feedback making the Sannin's arms tingle. He felt his blood run cold when he saw who was responsible.

"Son Gohan," Orochimaru whispered, nervous though he wouldn't admit it. Three years ago, Son Gohan had nearly killed him. Orochimaru had repaid blood for blood but had been unable to deliver a finishing blow, thanks in large part to Kunoichi-chan down there. Sasuke had said that Gohan would get stronger in time, something that he'd been so certain of that Orochimaru had had no choice but to believe his new prospective host.

"Gohan?" Sakura whispered, stunned. She felt as if a light wind would blow her over. "Is it really you?" Gohan's grim face split with a genuine smile. It warmed Sakura from her head to her toes. She took in his appearance. He was taller, standing almost a full head above her. He could rest his chin on her head only by stretching a tiny bit when before she had been able to rest her head on his shoulder with no effort. He was wearing the same orange gi and blue undershirt that she remembered, a copy, she'd been told, of his father's uniform. Gone was the messy moptop Sakura remembered, instead Gohan's hair swept up, defying gravity as a crown of black spikes, except for a tiny lock that just barely touched his forehead.

"Yeah," he replied softly. "It's me." Sakura gathered herself to hug him, welcome him back, but a hand stalled her. "Later, Sakura, I promise." He turned his back on her and glared up at Orochimaru, "I have some unfinished business first."

"Will you be okay?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah," Naruto added. "He kicked your ass last time."

"Naruto!"

"Well he did!" Naruto protested.

Gohan actually laughed. "I'll be fine," he answered. He smiled over his shoulder at them. "I can tell you've both gotten a lot stronger since I saw you last. And so have I." He smirked again. "I'm not the same guy I used to be." He gathered his legs to leap into the sky.

"Gohan, be careful!" Sakura pleaded.

"Don't worry about me," Gohan replied. "Just wait here. I'll be right back!" Gohan roared into the sky, shrouded in blue-white fire, much as Orochimaru had been.

Orochimaru watched the blue streak rocket up towards him. The Sannin set himself in the sky, readying himself for the battle to come. "Come, Son Gohan," Orochimaru whispered. "Let's see how you've grown in these three years."

Gohan's aura flashed gold and he shot forward, as fast as a bullet. The sky over Konoha echoed with a sonic boom. Then another strange thing happened. Gohan's aura went back to blue but his speed only grew! Orochimaru was ready for the attack but somehow Gohan's fist smashed roughly through his guard, completely ignoring the resistance Orochimaru offered, and smashed the Sannin's chest.

Orochimaru shot through the air, unable to stop himself. He was only trying to breath right at that second. He arced to the ground, ripped a furrow in the road before skipping off an embedded rock and putting a hole in three buildings. Gohan was waiting for him when he smashed through the third one. The saiyan seized Orochimaru by the hair and smashed his face into a wall, once, then again before punting him skyward again.

Orochimaru got his wits about him and stopped his headlong tumble in a pulse of power. Gohan's shin was already filling his vision. A cloud of vapor erupted over the village, the shockwave forcing moisture out of the air. Orochimaru erupted from it, tumbling head over heels, rocketing over the village. He halted his tumbling and shot a ki blast at the rushing Gohan right as he erupted from the cloud himself.

Gohan's hand flashed, the ki blast sparked and sang as it was swatted away, hitting somewhere outside the village walls, then Gohan was pushing a ki blast of his own right into Orochimaru's face. The Sannin had a flash of deadly onyx eyes, just as sharp as a Super Saiyan's in their intensity, then the ki blast fired.

Orochimaru twisted his body sinuously, contorting more than he ever had before his augments, and dodged the blast. He lashed out, fully expecting to find Gohan's body with the blow. After all, he should still outclass the Super Saiyan.

Orochimaru's fist split nothing but air.

"You're slow," Gohan said from behind him, his voice deadly.

Orochimaru spun around, looking for the warrior. "Where are you looking?" Gohan asked. Orochimaru spun to face him, trying to simply catch sight of the warrior, but each time he spun to where Gohan was, the young man was already a shadow in the corner in his vision.

Gohan's fist crashed into the side of Orochimaru's head. The Sannin saw stars as he blasted into the ground outside the Hokage's Tower. The ground splintered, the earth itself shook, knocking shinobi off their feet. Gohan landed just as Tsunade left the tower, Jiraiya at her side. The Godaime drew up short when she saw Gohan.

"Son…Gohan?" She asked, hardly daring to believe her eyes, but she knew it really was him. He wasn't a Super Saiyan right then, but his eyes had the same deadly intensity and Tsunade had the distinct impression of standing on an ocean shore. That was what it was like looking at Gohan. He had a quiet strength, rock solid in its density, silent in its power. Orochimaru lashed out with a foot, trying to hit the boy…no the man who'd put him in the ground.

Gohan was already in motion.

Tsunade blinked and she missed it. When her eyes opened, Orochimaru was tumbling through the air, helpless. "How?" She whispered, watching her former teammate tumble. "You're not even a Super Saiyan!"

"Wrong," Gohan said, as if he hadn't just tossed one of the most dangerous shinobi in the world like he was a feather. "I'm something more."

"What do you…" Jiraiya started to say.

"Explain later," Gohan said, vanishing. They knew where he'd gone when a dull clap of thunder echoed over the village and a black speck went flying. Gohan was about to press the attack when the skies split open again, drooling red light. "What now?" He wondered. No sooner had he spoken then two gold streaks burst from the clouds. They shot out like bullets. One headed straight for Gohan, who backhanded it away. He hit something soft, forgiving, not hard like a ki blast.

He had a sudden, horrendous feeling, but by the time logic caught up with action, the streak was already over the horizon and vanishing quick.

The second one headed for Orochimaru, who reacted much as Gohan had and backhanded the blast away. This one arced over the horizon in an entirely different direction. The Sannin took advantage of Gohan's distraction and hammered him in the jaw.

Sakura and Naruto cried out, shielding their eyes from the rocks that erupted when Gohan's unyielding body met equally unyielding earth and shattered the earth to pieces. Above, Orochimaru glanced over the walls of Konoha and saw a metallic flash in the trees.

He smiled. His objectives had been met here. He'd shown Konoha what he could, even if the effect would be muted somewhat by Son Gohan's reappearance, and, more importantly, he'd gotten what he needed to help with the body transfer that was looming ever closer.

Orochimaru's aura flared around his body and he blasted off, not noticing that he followed one of the streaks' paths. He just wanted to get as far from Konoha as possible before he had to fight Son Gohan in his present condition. Gohan's power boost had caught Orochimaru off guard, admittedly, but the young man had shown something else. "He was relentless," Orochimaru murmured. "He never transformed, but he was merciless." Orochimaru's mouth split into its wide, inhuman grin. "You surprised me, Gohan-kun. I love a good challenge! Kukukuakakahahahahahah!"

* * *

><p>"Kazekage-sama, it's time for the meeting."<p>

Gaara acknowledged Baki's message with a nod. He was standing on top of the Kagekage's building, a massive orb of sand that dominated the center of Sunagakure. Suna itself was set inside the protective bowl formed by a huge desert plateau. In times past, the village had sat on top of the outcrop but the ninja, always seeking to improve their defenses, had burrowed down over time until the village sat on the desert floor and the plateau rose around it, shielding it from attacks and the elements. If there was a better defended village out there, Gaara had yet to see it.

Gaara himself had changed little since he'd been made Kazekage. He was still sleep-deprived and the heavy bags under his eyes showed it, making him look like a raccoon, which was ironic considering the beast he harbored within him. The warm desert evening wind stung his face with sand grains, his short-cropped red hair whipping but it didn't conceal the kanji for love that he had sandblasted himself into his forehead.

The only thing different about his appearance now was the teal and white Kazekage robes he wore and the hat that hung off the Calabash gourd strapped to his back, a gourd that Gaara was never seen without, peacetime or no. Naruto had changed him significantly, Gaara reflected. He remembered that day, under the tree in Konoha, where Naruto had shown him an act of genuine kindness. It had lit Gaara's inky black world and shown him the life beyond the constant pain, the loneliness, and the scorn.

Gaara had worked hard to earn the villager's trust and respect and it had paid off. Gaara now stood as the Godaime Kazekage, succeeding his father, who had been killed by Orochimaru, and giving Suna a leader once again, after nearly two years of leaderless limbo. Gaara's face showed nothing, but he smirked inwardly at the frustration he had to be causing Naruto. His rambunctious friend, after all, wanted nothing more than to be Hokage and Gaara had beaten the blond to his dream. Gaara hadn't seen Naruto in a year or two, not since Jiraiya and Naruto had come through Suna on their way to parts unknown. Gaara hadn't been leading his village at that point, but he and Naruto had spent some talking about their hopes and dreams. Well, to be fair, Gaara had stood there and enjoyed Naruto's company and Naruto had done all the talking.

"Kazekage-sama," Baki said again, respectfully, not wanting to intrude on Gaara's thoughts.

"Yes," Gaara answered. "I'll be there in a m…." He broke off, Gaara's teal eyes narrowing dangerously. The cork on Gaara's gourd dissolved and crumbled into sand, which was what the gourd was and contained, all held together by Gaara's will. The Kazekage's arms crossed over his chest. It looked casual, but Baki recognized it as Gaara's fighting stance, a signal of danger. The jounin sidled a few steps to the left and slipped into the shadow of the entrance to the roof. He watched Gaara's back, though the Kage needed little of it, and scanned the skies, following Gaara's gaze.

Sure enough, there was something out there. It was a tiny glint, growing larger every second. A low whistle reached Baki's ears. It was so faint that at first he thought he imagined it, until the whistle turned into an unearthly howl that sounded like the legions of Hell unleashed!

The screaming light shot over the plateau that shielded Suna, skipped once off the ground, raising a huge fountain of sand, and arrowed straight for Gaara, as if the light had a mind of its own.

The explosion was huge.

Baki shielded his eyes, the veil that covered half of his face flapping madly, and slowly lowered his arm when he thought it was okay to. Gaara was standing as he had been before. The only difference was the statue of Shukaku that was sitting in front of him. As Baki watched, the Shukaku idol lost its shape and detail, collapsing into a cloud of sand that flowed along the ground like water, climbing Gaara's leg like a python, slithering back into the gourd, which took shape once again, having dissolved to further add its sand to Gaara's defenses.

As the Shukaku dissolved, it unearthed a figure. Baki started when he realized that the figure was human and had gone through the front of the Shukaku idol, which was Gaara's single strongest defense, and burrowed into the technique's center. Baki felt the blood drain from his face. Nothing had done that. Ever.

"What was that?" Baki asked, leaving his place behind Gaara when the figure laying on the roof didn't move.

"A person," Gaara said unnecessarily. A person it was. The man was human, that much was apparent, dressed in an orange gi. On the back of the gi was a white circle trimmed in black. In the center of the circle was the kanji for 'Turtle'. Gaara reached down and rolled the man over, despite Baki's noise of protest. The man was muscled, heavily so, a testament to a punishing workout regimen. He couldn't have been more than late thirties or early forties at the most, his features strong, his jaw defined but not boxy and there appeared to be faint lines from laughter around the corners of his mouth and eyes. You had to really look to see them, but they were there. His hair was a mess, as much as that Son Gohan from Konoha, who had defeated Gaara in the prelims of the Chuunin Exams three years ago. It was the worst on the front, back and sides and it seemed that no matter which way the man's head rolled, the spikes managed to be prominent.

"Who is this?" Baki asked.

"Good question," Gaara murmured, nudging the man again. His head rolled over to the other side and revealed a fairly nasty bruise blooming on the side of his head. "My Shukakku defense didn't do this."

"You're right. The bruise wouldn't be this large and visible already," Baki agreed.

Gaara watched the man's chest. To his surprise, it rose and fell with regular rhythm. "He's unconscious."

"Impossible," Baki snorted. "He hit the ground and your ultimate defense. There's no way…he…could…he is alive!" Gaara snorted through his nose as his sand crept out of his gourd and lifted the unconscious man up, floating suspended by a tendril of grains.

"I'll take him to the medical wing."

Gaara carried the man inside on the floating bed of sand.

It had been one hell of an entrance, but Son Goku had indeed arrived in Sunagakure.

Gaara had no idea just how much he would need Goku in the battle to come.

* * *

><p>And so begins Gohan's Return. Hope the wait was worth it. I also hope the battle between Gohan and Orochimaru was gratifying. Many of you were...unhappy, to say the least, when Orochimaru beat up Gohan in Dilemma. Obviously, Gohan's not going down so easy this time around. And yes, that was Mystic Gohan vs Orochimaru. I've mentioned that I'm making changes to how Gohan's Mystic form works. To make a long story short, it's going to be something like Ichigo's Bankai from Bleach. Those of you who read Bleach know what I'm talking about. For those who don't, long story short, the Mystic form grants Gohan access to all his power then compresses it down. Better explanation in chapters to come.<p>

**Glossary**

**Kongonyoi (Adamatine Staff): **Enma changes into a green staff and it can increase in size and length. Like Goku's old Power Pole.

**Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique): **Creates an actual, physical copy of the user as opposed to a simple illusion like the regular version. Also comes in every elemental version apparently. So far the manga has used Water, Lightning, Earth, and a few other elements.


	3. Of Doctors and Saiyans

Disclaimer: Own nothing

* * *

><p>Gohan floated over Konoha, glaring in the direction Orochimaru had vanished. He could still make out the Sannin's aura glowing in the distance and could sense him clear as day. Apparently Orochimaru, while being adept at concealing his chakra, couldn't control his ki nearly as well. A shinobi using ki was akin to someone trying to unlearn everything they knew in life and starting over, language, dominant hand, way of thinking, muscle memory, everything. It was damn near impossible to do and Orochimaru was the only one Gohan knew of who had succeeded and that was only because the bastard had killed a kid, <em>a kid!,<em> to get what he wanted.

The young man had been worried about taking on Orochimaru again, after the trouncing the Sannin had given him last time, but, Gohan thought, it looked like Elder Kai's 'training session' had paid off in spades. The battle with Majin Buu had happened recently and Gohan's power had only grown since then. His full potential was released, true, but Gohan worked hard to keep pushing his limits. A saiyan's body wasn't like a human's where a human would hit a glass ceiling after hard training. A saiyan's body, genetically bred for battle by millennia of natural selection, would continue to toughen. Look at Broly. He only got stronger as he fought and Gohan and Goku, Goten, Vegeta, Trunks, all the others, followed the same pattern, though it was at a _much_ more sedate pace.

Yes, Gohan decided, what he had now was enough. Orochimaru had been sent packing and though the next battle would be much tougher, since they both had the measure of each other now, Gohan was confident he could handle it.

"Gohan!"

He glanced down and smiled, seeing Sakura waving up at him. He grinned and dropped from the sky. He landed in front of her, though the happy feeling might have kept him aloft, taking in how much she'd changed. Sakura hadn't changed much, physically. She was taller, but Gohan still looked down on her, and he could tell by the way she held herself that she was much more confident a martial artist now than she had been before. She looked just as Gohan had imagined she would.

Sakura hugged him tight and any worries that Gohan might have had about her not remembering him were immediately washed away. Absence really did make the heart grow fonder, it seemed. He realized suddenly that she was crying against his chest. He returned her embrace. "Sakura?" he asked, but Sakura only clung tighter to him.

"You really came back," she whispered after a while.

"Of course I did. I promised you, didn't I?" They pulled back a little so they could actually look each other in the eye. Gohan gave her a teasing grin. "Don't tell me you actually doubted me?"

Sakura's eyes flashed with inner laughter. "Well you do kind of live in another dimension."

Gohan's grin widened. "Not anymore," he said and saw the confusion cross Sakura's face for a moment before the realization dawned on her. She hugged him fiercely again. "I'm staying for good and I made sure everyone back home knows it. Shenlong's not pulling me away from you ever again."

"Good," Sakura replied, her voice watery, though Gohan pretended not to notice. "Damn dragon." Gohan laughed.

"Alright, alright, that's enough mushy stuff!" Naruto said, grinning at Gohan as he and Sakura pulled away from each other. The blond didn't wait to run over to his surrogate brother and slap him on the back. "Welcome back, you bastard!"

"Naruto," Gohan replied, his Son grin a perfect match for Naruto's megawatt fox grin. He couldn't help it. Trying to frown around Naruto in a situation like this was like trying to breath without air. "How've you been?"

"Better than ever!" Naruto crowed. The three of them lapsed into conversation, trading stories and reliving the past and what had happened to them before they'd reunited. Of course, their course was unerringly to Ichiraku Ramen, which had survived the assault unscathed. Naruto and Gohan plunked right down, as if they had never left, and proceeded to start devouring Ichiraku's entire stock of noodles as if their life depended on it.

"The more things change, the more they stay the same," said a voice.

The trio, Gohan and Naruto trailing noodles from their lips, turned around. Kakashi stood behind them, hand in pocket, Icha Icha book in hand, and bored expression on the little part of his face that was visible. "Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto said, or tried to. With the noodles in his mouth it came out 'Mamashi!'

"Don't talk with your mouth full, Naruto," Kakashi answered. "Didn't Jiraiya teach you better than that?"

Naruto swallowed indignantly. "That Ero-sennin isn't my mother, dammit!"

"How've you been, Kakashi?" Gohan asked, swallowing his noodles before speaking and setting the finished bowl aside. He stood and shook hands with the lanky jounin.

"Better, now that you're back," Kakashi replied in all seriousness. "We weren't sure how we were going to get rid of Orochimaru with him hovering around the village like that." He glanced around. A haze of smoke hung over the village, but the fires were out and already the clattering of hammers could be heard as the ever-industrious civilian workforce got down to business. "Looks like the damage was minor at least."

"He was after something," Gohan said seriously, his face grim. "I don't know what but he was…."

"Got that right," Tsunade interrupted as she, Shizune, Jiraiya, and Tonton the pig all came up to Ichiraku. Tonton oinked and went right over to the stacks of discarded bowls next to Gohan and Naruto and proceeded to lick the leftover broth out of them. "He was after something."

"What?" Kakashi asked as the three others leaned in closer, listening eagerly.

"Kabuto," she sighed. "He's gone. His cell was opened from the outside and the guards are all saying that they fell asleep without knowing how, but they all do remember seeing a pair of red eyes looking at them. We've hushed it up, but you know what that means."

Kakashi sighed. "Sasuke," he muttered. "He used his Sharingan to put the guards to sleep with a genjutsu."

"Sasuke wouldn't do that!" Naruto protested. "Remember? Gohan was getting through to him! I don't think that…"

"Naruto," Jiraiya said sharply. "Sasuke's had three years under Orochimaru. We have to assume that he's not the same Sasuke you knew."

"We don't know that!" Naruto said, cerulean eyes glaring.

"We do," Tsunade replied. "Look at you and Sakura and Gohan. All three of you are almost unrecognizable from what you were before. Sasuke will be no different. If you go after him thinking he's the same as he used to be, then you'll die. It's that easy."

"It's not that simple."

"I never said that," the Hokage replied. "I said it would be easy."

"But why Kabuto?" Sakura asked. "We've had him under lock and key for the last three years, ever since Gohan brought him down at Tanzaku. He's of no use to Orochimaru right now."

"That's where you're wrong," Tsunade answered. She sat down beside Sakura with a groan. She'd been running around all day, assisting where required during Orochimaru's attack. She had just been about to rally the troops and go after him when Gohan had appeared. "We got plenty out of him. He was pretty eager to keep Ibiki and Anko off him, see, and…"

"I don't blame him," Jiraiya muttered.

"And," Tsunade went on with a glare at Jiraiya, "we found out that he's not just important to Orochimaru, he's critical."

"Explain," Kakashi said, dark eye intense. This was all new to him. Any and all information gotten from Kabuto had been instantly sealed and locked away where only the Hokage could get to it.

"Orochimaru's time is running out. He's had three years in his body and the body is finally starting to reject him. As it does, it's going to start gnawing at Orochimaru's power. His chakra reserves will deplete, his control will get more and more tenuous, his muscles will atrophy, he'll get twitchier as his nerves begin to fire on their own, all kinds of bad things."

"What happens at the end of the three years?"

Shizune shrugged. "We don't know. I think that Orochimaru will be pushed out of his body by the soul inhabiting it or the body just rejects him like it would an organ with the wrong match. Either way, Orochimaru can't keep control and very soon he's going to be shoved out of the body he's living in."

"And the spirit," Tsunade added, picking up on her aide, "needs a body to live in. It can't survive without one. If Orochimaru is shoved out of his body by the body itself then…" she shrugged. "Well, I don't know what happens but it can't be good for him."

"Doesn't explain how Kabuto is so important," Sakura murmured.

"Kabuto is the only one who can keep Orochimaru's body from deteriorating. Without him, Orochimaru is going to be more and more incapable of even just wiping his own ass. He needs Kabuto, or Kabuto's medical knowledge more specifically, to prolong his stay in that body."

"So Orochimaru fought against the village to let Sasuke spring Kabuto unnoticed?" Gohan asked. Tsunade nodded. "So what do we do now?"

The Godaime smirked. "Well," she said slowly, "Kabuto is an escaped prisoner. We have to bring him back right?" She grinned when she saw the comprehension dawn in the eyes of the kids. "Team Seven has gone up against Orochimaru twice, three times in some cases, and come away every time. Only Jiraiya and I have been able to do that and since we're needed here," she shrugged, "it's only natural that I send my experts out." She glanced at Kakashi. "I'll give your team a day or two to get ready."

"Yes ma'am," Kakashi answered dutifully as the Hokage walked past him and headed for the Tower again. He looked back at his team, which was all ear-to-ear grins. "Alright, you three. You heard her. Get your stuff settled Gohan, Naruto, then pack whatever you need." The jounin's smile underneath his mask was fierce and it came through in his eye. "We're going snake hunting."

* * *

><p>Gaara sat through the meeting not really paying attention to what his aides and advisers were saying. They were discussing Suna's improving standing among the Five Great Nations, something that had been brought on by the alliance that Gaara had managed to forge with their former rival Konoha. There were a few members of the council that didn't like allying with a once-staunch enemy, but Gaara wasn't among them. He owed Konoha a great debt for helping him out of the darkness and fully intended to repay it and then some, so Konoha would owe Suna a favor or two, which would come in very handy.<p>

Gaara's mind was also distracted because of the mysterious new visitor to Sunagakure. The man who had crashed into Gaara's Shukaku defense was still unconscious but the best medics in the village said that he was in no danger. They'd even gone so far as to heal the bruise on the side of the stranger's head. They said it was from blunt trauma but was fully fixable. Now the man was resting and he'd taken to it with gusto, sprawling over the sheets and bed with sloppy grace. His snores had been horrendous. Even now, if Gaara listened very closely, he could hear the man snoring, a faint undertone that had had most of the council members throwing each other furtive glances, looking for the source. Gaara just wished the new arrival would wake up so he could ask the man a few questions.

"Kazekage-sama," Yura said gently. "Did you hear me?"

"No," Gaara replied bluntly.

"You should be paying more attention, Gaara," Baki chided, the visible side of his face flashing in annoyance. "We're discussing important topics here, particularly Akatsuki."

That got Gaara's attention. Akatsuki was a group of rogue ninja from all of the Five Great Nations and a few of the smaller countries besides. It was a very well-funded and organized group and had been responsible for the capture and murder of a few of the Jinchuuriki in the world, the bearers of the Bijuu. Rumor was that three years ago they'd gone after Naruto, the host for the Kyuubi, but had been driven off. They'd dropped off the radar after that, biding their time Gaara knew, until it was time to act again. A few obscure reports over recent months had pointed to an upswing in their activity. Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame, from Konoha and Kirigakure respectively, had been seen in a hamlet in Fire Country, uncomfortably close to Konoha. Gaara suspected that they were keeping an eye on Naruto, waiting for an opportunity to slip in and nab him, something not made easy by Jiraiya never being more than a few minutes from Naruto's side.

Jiraiya had submitted a report on what he thought Akatsuki's operating methods were and Gaara was inclined to believe them. The man may act the buffoon, but a buffoon he wasn't. It was veneer that he projected to lull his marks into complacency. Jiraiya's report said that he thought Akatsuki operated in pairs, each one paired with a partner that worked well with him or her. An example was Itachi and Kisame. Kisame's brute strength, which was said to rival a Bijuu, was offset and complimented by Itachi's precision and cunning. They moved in mysterious ways, always going through middlemen and intermediaries. Only when the target was vulnerable did the actual pair strike, which minimized their being killed in combat.

Jiraiya had also identified Sasori of the Red Sand, one of Suna's own missing-nin, though Jiraiya had no concrete proof, only circumstantial evidence, and believed Sasori's partner to be Deidara of Iwagakure. Again, it was all conjecture, based on Jiraiya's observations of past events. But, despite the smoke and mirrors in the report, it was all they had.

"What do we think Akatsuki's up to?" Gaara asked. He was interested alright. He was a Jinchuuriki himself after all. "Do we know where they are?"

Baki slid him a photo in response. Gaara wasn't sure where it was from but it showed two men, one tall and slender, the other oddly hunched and misshapen, both of them wearing black, high-collared, cloaks with red clouds on them and woven grass conical hats on their heads. "This was taken at a small rest stop just inside Wind's borders."

"How old?"

"A week or two. The man taking that shot ditched the roll of film as soon as he was able at a secure drop and attempted to further follow this pair." Baki shook his head. "His body was found three days ago. He was blown to bits." The news was somber.

"Deidara of Iwagakure was rumored to be able to use explosive clay, wasn't he?" Yura asked. Baki nodded. "Then it would appear that Jiraiya-sama's report was partially correct, which means that this," here he tapped the other, hunched figure in the photo, "could very well be Akasuna no Sasori. The Red Desert Scorpion."

"It should be a safe bet that if they're in Wind then their target should be obvious," Baki added, giving Gaara a meaningful glance. The rest of the councilors looked worried as well.

"We won't let them have the Kazekage!" One of the other men said firmly, banging his fist on the table. "We'll show them what happens if you mess with our village!" That drew nods all around. "As a precaution, we should increase the guard at the wall."

"Already done," Yura answered, who was in charge of that kind of thing, being head of the village's police force. "The wall guard has been doubled and all members have been instructed as to what Akatsuki looks like. If they even get near the wall, we'll know and they'll be cut down before we can even reinforce the main gate."

"As expected of Yura," the councilor who'd spoken said, relief in his voice and face. "Would that all our villager's youngsters were like you and the Kazekage. Suna's position would be assured for decades to come."

"It's getting late," Gaara broke in, "and I have things I must attend to. If there is nothing else, I'd like to adjourn here for the day." The members of the council nodded and stood, waiting until Gaara had risen to do so. They followed him out into the hallway, each person complimenting Yura on his forthright thinking.

Yura accepted all the compliments with a nod, shaking off the praise. His head split open right then. The pain was terrible! It drove him to his knees before he even knew what was happening and the young councilor felt something break inside him. Just as quickly as it appeared, the paralyzing pain vanished and Yura was fine. "Yura!" One man said, helping the stricken man up by the elbow. "Are you alright?"

"Fine," Yura replied distractedly. He knew that he had somewhere else to be right then, another task to do. "I'm tired is all. We've been at this meeting all day with little rest. I guess it's getting to me."

The councilor sighed. "I understand. Get some sleep, Yura. We'll need you at your best in the days to come."

"Yes," Yura replied, heading for the exit from the Kazekage's building. "I'll be sure to do that." Everyone who saw the ninja after that thought that he looked distracted and harried. The man's pace was brisk and purposeful. He had a good reason to hurry as well.

Sasori did so hate to be kept waiting.

* * *

><p>Gaara sat down in the plush chair of his office, spinning it around to take in the panorama of Suna at night. The village lay below him, twinkling, serene. Peaceful. It was a word that Gaara didn't know much about but it was one that he was more than happy to keep learning. He had no idea how much of his life had been chaos until it had been swept away by one simple gesture of friendship. Now his siblings didn't look at him with fear, the village looked up to him with respect, and they were almost fanatical in their defense of him. Gaara liked the change of pace and knew in his bones that he would die to defend this village. It was the least he could do to repay the second chance they had given him.<p>

"Gaara, it won't be as easy as Yura makes it out to be to defend the village," Baki said as soon as the door shut. "Sasori and Deidara have gotten to where they are by being more cunning and brutal than their opposition and no jounin will stand a chance on his own. I doubt even our wall guard can…"

"I know."

The two words brought Baki up short. "What?"

"I know they won't be enough to stop Akatsuki." Sand rose from the gourd in the corner and pooled on Gaara's desk. The Kazekage put his hand on it and focused his chakra. The sand began to resonate and Gaara was instantly aware of every step that was taken on the sand in the village. It was chaotic, as everyone was out enjoying the cool desert night and Gaara couldn't make heads or tails of individual steps, but he felt the life of the village most acutely. It thrummed right up his arm and seemed to resonate in his very core. "I'll protect this," he muttered, releasing the technique. The pulsing sand fell silent and lifeless. He went to the window to see what he had just felt. It was a nightly ritual for Gaara. It gave him the resolve he needed as the Kazekage to protect Suna.

He watched the village in silence, aware of Baki standing with him for simple human companionship. Gaara blinked then spun around, heading for the door, his gourd dissolving and flowing onto his back, saving the Kage the trouble of picking it up.

"Gaara!" Baki called. "What's wrong?"

"It's too quiet," he called back. "The snoring's stopped!"

"Snoring?"

"Our visitor's awake!"

Baki was thunderstruck for all of one second then he was running right beside Gaara, heading fast of the infirmary. They burst into the hospital wing and drew up short, somewhat stunned. The stranger, despite everything he'd been through, was sitting up, clear-eyed and looking none the worse for the wear. Gaara knew that even if the medics had attended to his injuries, he should still be sore. Healing jutsu could only do so much before the body had to take over and let nature run its course.

"Whoa!" The stranger yelped at the sudden intrusion. He toppled right off the bed, treating Gaara and Baki to a view of the man's flailing legs. The man righted himself, clinging to the bed. "Hey! Don't burst in like that! What if I'd really gotten hurt?" Kazekage and aide could only gape at each other.

"Y-you're in a hospital…" Baki started to say but the second he got to 'hospital' the stranger screamed.

"Hospital!" The man shouted, recoiling. "Oh man! I hate hospitals! There aren't…d-d-doctors around here are there?"

"It is a hospital," Gaara replied, as if that should explain everything.

"But the doctors!" the man whimpered.

"Are not here, right now," Baki finished, just to calm the man down. He shook his head when the stranger took a deep breath and plopped right back in bed, perfectly calm again. Gaara and Baki traded worried looks. This guy seemed rather…high strung.

Gaara recovered first. "Who are you?"

The man blinked. "Who me? My name's Son Goku! Nice to meet you!"

"Son Goku," Gaara murmured. His teal eyes narrowed. "You wouldn't happen to be related to Son Gohan would you?"

Goku blinked again. "Gohan? Yeah, I'm related to him. He's my son!"

"You…are Son Gohan's father?" Baki asked. "How is that possible? I thought he was an orphan."

"Orphan?" Goku repeated. "No. Well, I mean I was dead for a few years there, but he had his mom. That doesn't make him an orphan, right?"

"D-dead?" Baki repeated. "You're lying!"

Goku shook his head. "No, I'm not lying. I was dead for a couple years and then I came back because Majin Buu was tearing up the world."

"Majin Buu," Gaara repeated. "There is no such enemy here. We would certainly be aware of him if he was tearing up the world as you claim."

"You've never heard of Majin Buu?" Goku asked, nonplussed. "But everyone heard of him." He trailed off, closing his eyes and folding his arms across his chest, apparently deep in thought. "Wait…I remember now. We were at home and Gohan had called the Dragon to wish himself to that other world."

"Other world?" Baki mouthed to Gaara, who shrugged and allowed the cork on his gourd to dissolve, just in case this man was more of a menace then he appeared to be.

"What do you mean, other world?" Gaara prodded.

"Oh, well three years ago, Gohan had an accident at Capsule Corp. My friend Bulma was testing some new machine and Gohan got caught up in it. He ended up getting flung into some other world and ended up hanging around some kid name Naruto or something." Goku folded his arms, frowning. "I wish I could remember the kid's last name."

"Uzumaki," Gaara said automatically.

"Huh?"

"Uzumaki Naruto. Your son met Uzumaki Naruto and became friends with him and allied himself with Konohagakure, a shinobi village a substantial distance from here."

"Right," Goku agreed. "But…how do you know?"

Gaara took off his gourd and tunic for his Kazekage robes. He lifted his undershirt up a short distance and displayed the small sunburst-shaped scar on the left side of his stomach. "I fought with Son Gohan in the preliminaries of the Chuunin Exam three years ago." He allowed his shirt to fall down, replacing both tunic and gourd. "He was the first one to defeat me in one-on-one combat."

"Wait!" Goku exclaimed. "I know you now! You're the panda guy!"

"Panda…guy?" Baki spluttered. "Show some respect! This man is…"

"Baki."

The jounin fell silent. Gaara looked at Goku. "I assume Son Gohan has told you about our clash."

"Yeah," Goku gushed, suddenly excited. "You're the panda guy who used sand to fight, right? Gohan said you gave him a lot of trouble!" The saiyan grinned. "Oh man, I can't tell you how much I've been wanting to fight you!" He vaulted out of bed and slid into a fighting stance, one that looked remarkably familiar to Gaara. Apparently, Son Goku had had no small part in training his son. "Come on!"

* * *

><p>Outside the village walls, the pair from the photo that Gaara had been shown were coming up on the massive plateau that marked Suna. They struck an usual scene, those two. One was tall, lanky, and left normal tracks. The other, hunched and seemingly broken, left one long smear in the shifting sands, like he was dragging his belly across the desert. "Look, Sasori," the tall one said. "You're home again. Excited, hmm?"<p>

"Shut up, Deidara," the hunched figure growled. His voice sounded like a wet rag being dragged over gravel and nails. There was sandpaper that wasn't as rough as the man's voice. "Let's get this over with. We have to get the Shukaku and get out. The sooner we do that, then happier I'll be."

"So impatient, hmm?" Deidara chuckled. "You're always in a hurry, Sasori. It's a wonder that you can stand looking at those lousy statues you consider art." He smirked as Sasori crunched by him, ignoring the Iwa missing-nin. "So cold, hmm."

The two missing nin kept advancing towards Suna, paying no need to the shouted warnings of the jounin and chuunin on the wall, which had been terraced so the shinobi could launch attacks over each other's heads without worrying about killing their comrades. The warnings died off the closer the two got to the village and soon enough, they stood in the entry way to the grand shinobi village.

The sandy ground was a quagmire of blood and sand, mixing together in a crimson slurry that clung to the bottom of Sasori's Akatsuki robe, caking it after only a few dozen steps. The bodies of slaughtered shinobi lay all around, necks and arteries brutally slashed. They never had a chance to defend themselves and most of the wounds were on their backs, indicating treachery within the Suna ranks. The traitor himself was kneeling in the muck, head bowed obediently.

"Yura," Sasori rumbled.

"Sasori-sama," Yura murmured reverently. "I am happy to have returned to your service, sir."

"Get up. You've done well Yura," Sasori went on as the councilor stood. "A member of the Suna council and head of their police force. You've done your job so well that no one bothered to verify when you said that you'd doubled the guard at the wall when you'd actually halved it instead."

"You're too kind, Master," Yura replied as the two Akatsuki walked by him. He waited then stood and followed after them. They soon stood at the small scenic overlook that had been hewn into the side of the plateau. The village spread out below them, stairs wending their way down to the desert floor, a substantial, but far from deadly, drop.

Deidara removed his hat, tossing it to the wind, showing off his blond hair. A long fall of it covered his left eye. He smirked and reached into the two pouches on his hips, the mouths in the palms of his hands opening and beginning to eat the clay that he had stored in there. "I guess it's my turn now, hmm?" He held up his hand, the mouth spitting out a small cube of chakra-infused clay that Deidara molded into the shape of a bird, complete with his own artistic embellishments. A hand seal later and the bird was full size, ruffling clay feathers. Deidara hopped onto its back and took to the sky, soaring over the village. The wind from the bird's flight pushed his hair back, revealing a camera attached to his left eye. He started pushing buttons on it, scanning the village below him.

"One," Deidara murmured when he saw the target he was looking for. "Two," he scanned a bit more. "Three." He chuckled. "Three? That's it? Only three jounin watching the skies." His other hand, still chewing the clay it had bitten off earlier, spit out three small cubes that Deidara molded into spiders. "Easy targets, hmm?" A hand seal brought the spiders to life. They scuttled over his palm, over the bird's wings and leaped.

The spiders landed and headed for their targets.

Deidara smirked and made another seal. The spiders jumped. The jounin tried to scream as they were assaulted, but didn't get any noise out as their faces and heads were covered. "KATSU!"

Three explosions blew the heads right off the unfortunate jounin, dropping them to the ground. Deidara soared above it all laughing manically, delighting, as ever, in the art that his explosives could create. "Art is a bang!" He howled with laughter. He leaped off the bird, landing on the roof of the Kazekage's offices. "Infiltration complete."

A presence made him look up.

Deidara's lips curled upwards in a smirk. "Oh? And who the hell would you be, hmm?"

* * *

><p>On the other side of the village, Sasori shook his head as he watched the three small lights blossom and wink out. It took less than a second but he knew that it was too noisy. "That fool is going to attract the attention of the Kazekage and then we'll be in trouble," Sasori rumbled.<p>

"It could be worse, Sasori-sama," Yura murmured from beside the hunched man.

Sand erupted to life and swirled up around Yura.

"Sabaku Kyuu!"

Yura's face was a constricted into an expression of shock and terror, the sleeper cell shinobi recognizing the technique for what it was, but even before he could scream out in fear, the second part of the technique was completed.

"Sabaku Sousou!"

Blood sprayed everywhere as Yura was crushed faster than it took to blink. The councilor had never stood a chance. Sasori watched the entire spectacle unfold without a flicker of expression. "So you noticed after all." His eyes tracked up the side of the sheer plateau to the rim, where, silhouetted against the moonlight, stood Gaara, the Kazekage dressed for battle in his red fatigues, leather and linen sashes, and Calabash gourd. His eyes, while never warm, were as flinty as they had been when he had been lost in his own darkness. "Sabaku no Gaara."

"Akasuna no Sasori," Gaara replied. Sand erupted from behind Gaara like the tentacles of the Kraken myth that was so common among sailors. "Die."

* * *

><p>Happy Thanksgiving to all you American readers out there! And if you're not from America...well, go out, buy a nine kilogram turkey, eat it, and have a Happy Thanksgiving anyway! I know not much happened this chapter, but next one will make up for it. Promise. Later!<p> 


	4. Desert Duels

Disclaimer: Own nothing

* * *

><p>"And who would you be?" Deidara asked the orange-clad man standing in front of him, blocking the rooftop exit.<p>

"My name is Goku," Goku answered, smirking at his opponent. "That panda guy said that I should help him take care of you guys, to pay him back for taking care of my injuries." He grinned. "I think it's a fair trade." He slid into a martial arts fighting stance.

_Taijutsu user,_ Deidara noted with a smirk, glancing up at his circling bird. _He's going to be fun to play with._ He also went for the second little trap he'd prepared, just in case this sort of thing had happened. Deidara was many things but stupid wasn't one of them. The trap, which had landed on the roof before Deidara had, sprang itself.

Goku cried out as a clay octopus latched itself onto his head. "Whoa! Hey! Get it off!" he stumbled around the rooftop, pulling and prying at the clay construct on his head. "Come on! What's…with…this…thing! Get off!"

"I'll help with that!" Deidara leered, making a hand seal. "KATSU!"

The explosion was terrific, shattering windows on the floor below. It wasn't Deidara's largest, not by a long shot, but it was more than enough to finish this guy off. Deidara laughed wildly when he saw smoke cloud, the only thing that would be left of the interloper. There was no way he had survived. "And that's that," he said with a smirk.

"What's what?" A voice from inside the smoke cloud asked.

"Impossible!"

The smoke cleared off and revealed Goku, his tunic blown off, showing off a muscled chest and pair of arms, but aside from a few sooty black marks on the saiyan's skin, he looked no worse for the wear. "That was really dangerous you know!" Goku protested. "That could've really hurt!"

"That…was the idea," Deidara protested weakly. "Why aren't you dead!"

"Huh? Oh, I wouldn't die just from that," Goku answered. He looked sheepish at Deidara's slackjawed expression. "Don't worry though. It still hurt a little!"

"Only a little he says," Deidara fumed. "Fine then! Let's try this again!" He flung a hand out. Sparrows of clay shot from the mouth in his hand, surrounding Goku in a whirlwind of white birds. The birds pecked and scratched at him, aiming for the saiyan's eyes. Goku flailed, trying to bat the things away but they were agile, far more agile than normal birds. Deidara leaped off the roof, landing softly on the back of his bird as it swept down and caught him. The two soared into the sky again. "KATSU!"

Multiple explosions touched off down below, each one as powerful as the octopus had been. Deidara smirked as he beheld the ravaged roof below. "That got him for sure, this time." He said with a grin. "Now where'd that Kazekage get to, hmm?"

"Ka….me….ha….me…"

"Huh? Kamehame?" Deidara asked. "What's that?"

He got his answer.

"HAAAAAAAAAA!"

Blue white death roared up from the haze below. The bird looped the blast and the energy wave continued on into the sky. "That…would've hurt," Deidara muttered to himself, blanching when he saw just how close it had come to hitting him. Goku appeared right in front of Deidara, one fist already cocked back.

"Now it's my turn!"

The blow blasted Deidara right off his bird and flung him out over Suna. Goku followed up, unleashing a ki barrage at the flying Akatsuki from atop his own bird. Deidara snarled a few curses and unfair assumptions about Goku's parentage before allowing his extra mouths to spew a cloud of small white balls. He regretted that he didn't have the time to make them more artistic, but in this case, time was of the essence.

A trail of explosions blossomed across the village as ki met clay and cancelled each other out. Deidara skidded across a rooftop, flailed for a second on the very edge, then regained his balance. "That was dangerous," Deidara muttered. He glared at Goku, still atop Deidara's bird. "Just who is this guy?" He folded a few hand seals and grinned. "But you're on my bird you can just die! KATSU!"

Goku looked down at the bird as it began to glow a bright white. "What's this?" He wondered.

KABOOM!

The bird exploded.

* * *

><p>The explosion also caught the attention of Sasori and Gaara, who were embroiled in a conflict of their own. Gaara hadn't budged from his position, preferring to lash down at Sasori with thick tendrils of sand, trying to snag the missing-nin, rock him off balance and finish him quickly. Sasori had proven that he was no slouch and had unveiled a long steel scorpion tail that dripped poison. Gaara was no slouch either and knew that one scratch would probably either kill him or, since he was the host to one of their precious tailed beasts, incapacitate him.<p>

He was already cloaked in his sand armor as a precaution. Gaara could only pray that it would be enough. He couldn't spare any more sand or chakra to thicken the second skin. The tail lashed out again. Sand flowed up around Gaara's feet and knocked the appendage away then shot forward, wrapping around the tail, following the metal back to flesh. The sections of the tail sprouted crab leg like claws, splitting the sand and freeing the tail. It retracted back, spinning in a circle, scattering sand like water.

"Impressive," Sasori rasped. "I can see why you were made the Kazekage."

Gaara's reply was simple. "Sabaku no Yari."

The sand that Sasori had scattered shot forward, thinning out and growing sharp. Sasori's attention was suddenly elsewhere and the shinobi hopped up and back, surprisingly graceful, despite his bulky frame, clearing the needles right as they crossed in front of him. A hair slower and the ninja would've been speared five or six different ways. Sasori's mouth, hidden behind the collar of his robes and a veil made out of a scrap of dark cloth, dropped open and shot a hail of senbon at the young Kage.

Gaara's sand rushed to his defense, swirling around him, catching all of the senbon before they got within two feet of Gaara himself. Gaara's lip curled in a snarl. The sand rushed to his defense independent of his will. He had absolutely no control over it and could exert no control while it was defending him. Sasori knew that, Gaara could tell, because he'd left himself open to attack when he'd launched that needle strike.

Gaara forced his will onto the sand. It resisted mightily but once it perceived no further danger to the Jinchuuriki, it bowed and allowed him control again. The sand sucked in the senbon and returned them as Gaara's own attack. The needles hit the stone so hard that they stuck.

But Sasori wasn't there.

Gaara's eyes flicked upward as a shadow passed over the moon.

Sasori came down with a yell, an iron club visible in his sleeve. Gaara hopped back, his sand rushing to his protection. Iron met earth, stopping the iron cold. Sasori didn't have anywhere near the force needed to force the club through. Gaara smirked and extended a hand.

"Sabaku Kyuu!"

The sand swirled over Sasori, trapping him. An explosion went off inside the coffin of sand, throwing several small steel balls clear and into the night sky. They exploded as well, hammering Gaara with more senbon needles. Sand swirled again, abandoning Sasori in favor of protecting Gaara. It caught most of them and the sand armor stopped the rest from piercing Gaara's skin.

The two shinobi faced off on top of the plateau now. Gaara's sand spread in front of him. "Suna Shuriken!"

The sand exploded out of the tendril and sped for Sasori.

* * *

><p>Goku vanished and reappeared right before vanishing again. The saiyan was dodging explosions just as fast as he could move, Deidara flinging literal clay pigeons at Goku, who was either dodging them or trying to take them out with small blasts of ki. Deidara snarled and let fly with a much larger than normal pigeon. When Goku dodged it, it went off by proximity. The shockwave hammered the warrior from behind, flinging him across Suna.<p>

He smashed right into a wall, spread eagle. "OW!" Goku yelped when he hit. He pulled himself free and shook the marbles out of his head, rubbing a small bump. "That one hurt!" He glared back towards where he could just barely sense Deidara. "That guy won't let me get anywhere near him! How am I supposed to defeat him if I can't hit him?" A high-pitched whistling made Goku look up. White dots were falling down towards him. "Yikes!" He scrambled on all fours, trying frantically to get into the air.

Boom!

They started off slow, but soon enough.

Boomboomboomboomboom!

The explosions were all around Goku, small flies that exploded mightily, nipping at his every step. Goku took one long bound, then two then three. He could feel the excitement of the fight in his blood, an innate battlelust that all Saiyans had inside them. He couldn't stop grinning. This was getting interesting!

Deidara smirked mightily as he watched the line of explosions etch themselves down the alleyway where his odd opponent had been flung. He could only chuckle to himself. The poor sap hadn't been able to get anywhere close to Deidara and any of the odd chakra attacks the man threw had been easy enough to counter with an explosion of like strength.

The mouths on his hands were chewing idly, preparing Deidara's fallback plan should this Goku guy survive what was currently raining down on him. Deidara was just about to finish the fight and turn away when a yell spread over the village and a blue-white light roared into the sky. At first Deidara thought it was that Kamehame-whatever but he could see the man inside the light.

"He survived?" Deidara asked, openly gaping. He knew of jounin who would be hard pressed to survive what he had just done to that guy.

Goku vanished from his blistering climb and reappeared on the rooftop before the Iwa missing-nin, just in time to see Deidara put the finishing touches on the clay sculpture that he'd just been kneading. "You know," Deidara said conversationally, ignoring Goku's settling into a stance, "you're a lot more resilient than I gave you credit for." He inspected the small model dragon in his palm, looking over the artistic whorls and lines that were set into it. Deidara nodded in approval. It would do for a rush job. "I'm going to have to step it up."

"Step it up?" Goku repeated. "I thought you were holding back."

"So you're a pretty able fighter after all, if you were able to see that," Deidara replied, setting the dragon on the ground. "You see, I have different levels of explosive. What you've been facing up to this point is my C1 level explosions, the weakest of them all." He gestured to the dragon. "This next one will be a C2, considerably stronger than what I've been dishing out so far."

"Stronger explosions?"

Deidara's smirk widened when he saw the trembling in Goku's limbs. "Nervous?" the Akatsuki asked. "You should be. After all, not many have faced my C2 and lived to tell the tale."

"Nervous?" Goku asked. "Why would I be nervous?"

Deidara blinked. "Hm? But…well…you're trembling. That means you're nervous."

"I'm not trembling because I'm nervous!" Goku laughed in reply. There was an intense gleam in the saiyan's eye that hadn't been there before. "I'm trembling because I'm excited! Come on! Let's see what this C2 thing you've been going on about can do!"

Deidara's lip curled into a sneer. "Don't underestimate me you bastard!" he made a hand seal. A huge explosion of smoke erupted over the roof. When it cleared Deidara was standing on the head of a massive dragon, which let out a rumbling, snuffling, roar when its eyeholes found Goku. Goku, for his part, didn't look anywhere near as confident as he did before as he took in the creature's size.

"That's…big."

"C2!" Deidara howled. "Bakuretsu Hiryuu!" The dragon spread its wings, beat them once and blew Goku right off the roof and into the street. He crashed heavily into a small street vendor's stall, collapsing it like a house of cards, sending pottery and drink bottles smashing and managing to get himself all tangled in the awning from the stall's roof. Goku pulled himself out of the wreckage.

Thud!

"OW!"

With difficulty.

"Hey!" Deidara shouted down from roof, his one visible eyebrow twitching in annoyance. "Are you even taking this seriously down there, huh?"

Goku rubbed at the back of his head, sitting cross-legged on the ground, laughing sheepishly. A crowd was gathering. The explosions had been a source of curiosity but up until this point they had been over the business district, away from people. Now the fight was shifting more towards the residential areas of Suna and was rapidly starting to attract more attention, civilian and shinobi alike.

"Well, no," Goku said awkwardly. "I guess I'm really not taking this seriously."

"All the opponents in the world and I had to get him," Deidara grumbled to himself, pinching the bridge of his nose. "How unlucky can I get, hmm?" He pointed down at Goku. "You should start taking this seriously, or you're going to die in the next explosion!"

"Hey wait!" Goku called up to his opponent. "You're going to attack me here? There's people here!"

Deidara's response was to carelessly wave a hand and scatter smaller C1-level explosives in the forming crowd. The resulting detonations killed a few and wounded even more. The people panicked and starting running like sheep, the shinobi in the crowds trying to route people for the shelters.

Another round of explosions turned the mob into a rampaging human stampede.

"Stop it!" Goku shouted, his voice louder than all the screams. People slowed down and looked back, seeing the saiyan warrior standing upright in the rubble of the stall, his carefree demeanor gone, replaced by a bone-chilling anger. "Leave them out of this!"

"This is what happens when you don't take a fight seriously," Deidara answered with a shrug. "Now come at me, or I'll kill everyone here!" He looked down just in time to see Goku's hair shoot straight up, as if it had a life of its own, a crown of black instead of his bedhead spikes.

Goku was in a deep stance, low; his feet braced wide, fists clenched at his ribs. The man's lips were curled back in a snarl and his eyes, once a brown so dark they were black, were now vivid and bright jade. "HAAAAAAAAAAA!" Gold light blasted out from Goku's body, along with a shockwave that shattered windows and light bulbs up and down the street that he was standing on.

Deidara shielded his eyes from the worst of it, but lifted the fall of hair over his left eye, trying to sneak a peek with his scope.

The scope blew out the second it tried to focus in on Goku.

The light and winds faded.

Goku stood straight up now, no longer in his deep squat. He had also changed completely from what Deidara had seen before. Goku's hair, once an unruly mass, now stood straight up at attention except for a crown of bangs low on his forehead. His eyes were a bright green, more vivid than any emerald and three times as hard, no sign of the laughing fool in them. His mouth and brow was set in a grim scowl, one so fierce and angry that a lesser man might have run screaming from the battlefield.

And, some part of Deidara's stunned brain noted, he was also outlined in an aura of chirping golden flame.

"I hope you're ready," Goku said. His voice was slightly lower than before, more of a growl now than the bright and clear tone he had sported only seconds ago. Deidara couldn't help but gulp as he remembered something that Itachi had brought to Akatsuki's attention three years or so ago…

* * *

><p><em>The cave was dark and dank, containing only the grotesque statue that the Akatsuki used for ripping the chakra of Bijuu from its host and storing it in the statue until the time was right to unleash the terrors upon the world again. There were nine eyes on the statue, one for each of the creatures, though only one or two were open right then. In front of the statue's face was its hands, bound at the wrists by manacles, the fingers open and palm up, as if the statue was begging for release.<em>

Or,_ thought Deidara, _perhaps it was asking for more chakra to devour.

_Around the missing-nin stood the other members of Akatsuki, or more specifically, the projections of the other members. The projections were odd for such a dark organization because each…hologram for lack of a better word, was a kaleidoscope of the rainbow, the seven colors constantly shifting and fighting with its fellow colors. It was, Deidara supposed, a rather artistic display. Not his usual medium perhaps, but pleasant nonetheless._

"_What is this about, Itachi-kun?" The Leader asked, his voice distorted and warped, sounding as if it came from behind filter. The Leader's purple eyes, entirely purple and ringed with concentric rings, the ripples in a pond, were focused on the crimson and black of the Sharingan. "Why have you called a meeting of the Akatsuki?"_

_Across from the Leader stood Itachi's hologram. The reply was long in coming; as if the Uchiha renegade was carefully gathering his thoughts and feelings on the matter he'd called them all together for. The Leader was patient. He knew, as did all the others, that Itachi would not have called them without good reason. None of them would have called this little reunion lightly. That Itachi had dared spoke to the seriousness of the situation. That it was Itachi himself only added to the seriousness of the situation._

"_Leader," Itachi murmured finally, voice as serious as it had ever been. Deidara didn't think Itachi had ever smiled in his life, even before slaughtering his own clan just to see how many of them he could kill. Turns out he killed them all. You didn't get to that point by having a sense of humor. "Kisame and I have encountered an…unusual individual in our pursuit of the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, Uzumaki Naruto."_

"_Jiraiya the Gama Sennin is an eccentric individual," the Leader said with finality, making Deidara wonder if the man knew Jiraiya personally. "He is hardly an unknown and no reason to call a conclave such as this. I'm disappointed in you, Itachi-kun. I thought you were more astute than that."_

"_Jiraiya-sama is not the reason for the meeting," Itachi said before everyone could break the jutsu and return to their own awareness. A few of the holograms that had begun to flicker stopped and returned to firm stability. "I'm here to deliver a warning."_

"_About what?" Hidan demanded._

"_Not what," Itachi answered cryptically, Sharingan never leaving the Leader's eyes. "Who. While attempting to capture the Kyuubi host, we came across a unique boy. His name is Son Gohan and he possesses a rather intriguing ability; the ability to use ki."_

That_ sent a frisson around the cave and even Zetsu, one of the most stoic and reserved Akatsuki members, sat up and took notice._

"_Ki?" Kakuzu breathed. "Impossible. No one has used ki since the samurai fell. Even they have abandoned it for chakra and the greater versatility it brings. There are rumors of ki users in the far north, but they are only rumors, nothing more."_

"_Kakuzu would be the one to know," Sasori agreed. "Perhaps Itachi witnessed a Kekkei Genkai that we have yet to acquire knowledge about?" Itachi was shaking his head before the puppet master had finished speaking._

"_No. This was no Kekkei Genkai, I'm certain and I am certain of precious little about this boy."_

"_You call him boy," the Leader's partner Angel said. "If he uses ki then he has to have trained his entire life. Surely he's an old man?" She shot Kakuzu an apologetic glance. "No offense intended to Kakuzu-san, of course."_

_Kakuzu shrugged and didn't reply._

"_No. Gohan-kun is a boy and a very talented one. He is approximately Naruto-kun's age, that is to say, twelve or thirteen at the most. He uses ki, but is most proficient in taijutsu as well, using a combination of styles that makes him versatile and unpredictable in the hand-to-hand arena. His taijutsu is on par with some of the finest masters I have come across or have heard rumors of. His ki is impressive for one his age, all things considered."_

"_He doesn't sound like a threat," Hidan scoffed. "He sounds like an annoyance! A thorn in someone's side!"_

"_I'm inclined to agree," the Leader added, nodding. "Hardly worth our time."_

"_I never said he was," Itachi answered, not defensively. "As I said, this is a warning. Be very cautious of him. His transformation especially."_

"_Transformation?" Sasori asked._

_Itachi nodded._

"_The brat can change his hair from black to gold," Kisame broke in, speaking for the first time, "and he becomes outlined in a visible aura of golden flame. His eyes also change color from black to green." Itachi nodded slowly in confirmation._

"_That is not the only thing," Itachi added quickly, perhaps sensing the derisive retort on Deidara's tongue. "His physical abilities also take a huge leap. There was a combination of circumstances that forced the Curse Seal Orochimaru put on him to activate." He looked around. "As you all know, the Curse Seal, while toxic to the mind and body, can draw out a person's full power, whether they want it to or not. Even unconscious, with the seal active, Son Gohan was able to knock out Kisame in one blow…"_

"_He caught me off guard!" Kisame protested weakly._

"_He knocked Kisame out in a single blow," Itachi repeated with a glare at his partner, "and proceeded to back both Jiraiya-sama and myself into a corner to the point that we needed to form a temporary alliance to survive."_

_Deidara let out a low whistle. "Some kid," the Iwa missing-nin muttered._

"_And you believe that this child is a threat," the Leader said. It wasn't a question._

"_Given time, Son Gohan will be able to fight any one of us in single combat and have a very good chance of victory if we are not extremely cautious." The certainty in Itachi's voice, more than anything else said so far, made Deidara's neck hairs stand on end. To be able to fight any member of Akatsuki and win…there were probably only a handful of shinobi in the world who could claim that. The list probably started with the five Kage and got smaller real damn fast._

"_Any one of us?" the Leader drawled. "Doubtful, but we will take your words under advisement, Itachi-kun." The man looked around at the other members. "Is that clear? Beware the boy who can change his hair and any more that may be like him."_

"_Yes, sir," the rest of Akatsuki said in a murmured whisper._

_Then they vanished from that place and returned to their duties, now aware of the danger presented by a Super Saiyan, though they had no idea of the term at the time._

* * *

><p>"So," Deidara said. "You are the one Itachi warned us about? Black hair that turns gold, eyes that turn green, and you're outlined in a gold flame aura. It all fits." Then the Akatsuki thought about it. "No, you can't be him. You're too old." He cocked his head. "An older brother perhaps?"<p>

"You're talking about Gohan, right?" Goku asked, circling Deidara's dragon, which turned in response to the Super Saiyan's movements, snarling the entire time. "I'm not his brother." The corner of Goku's mouth turned up in a smirk. "I'm his father." The fighter rolled his arm then cracked his neck. "So, shall we start again?"

"Let's go!" Deidara shouted in answer. Goku shot forward in a blaze of gold light. He vanished half way to Deidara and reappeared with a leg drawn back. "He's fast!"

"HA!"

Goku's kick blasted Deidara right off the dragon. Goku wasted no time. As soon as his feet touched clay, he blasted forward again, his aura giving off a high-pitched howl. A punch that rattled windows sent Deidara reeling across the village. He tumbled helplessly, unable to do anything to stop his wild ride.

He smashed hard into the plateau, on the other side of the village from Sasori and Gaara, who felt the impact a few seconds later when the stone beneath their feet shook like a drum.

* * *

><p>"So energetic," Sasori rasped, shaking his head. "Kids these days." He let out an amused snort. "Of course, you're one of those kids too, aren't you, Kazekage?"<p>

Gaara was just as stoic as Sasori appeared to be. _It's odd,_ Gaara thought. _We have been fighting for a while now and he has yet to slow down, to show any sign of strain. Even if he were leagues and bounds above me, he would be showing some form of fatigue, but he's not even showing that._ Teal eyes narrowed dangerously as his sand sprang to life, swiping at Sasori from multiple angles. The other shinobi dodged them, if a little clumsily, and returned fire in the form of another hail of senbon. Gaara's sand was already there, rising up in front of him and stopping it cold. The needles sucked into the sand then shot out again, returned to their thrower.

Sasori hopped back as the needles embedded themselves in the stone. Gaara had to resist the urge to growl in frustration. This was getting them nowhere fast and Gaara was beginning to feel the strain. The entire time the fight had been going on, the Kazekage had been trying to remember what Sasori had been to the village before going rogue. Gaara knew it was something important but he hadn't had much time to look at the report. A missing-nin who hadn't been seen for decades was lower on Suna's list of priorities than Kumogakure artificially lowering the prices of their missions, drawing customers away from the other four villages.

But he had seen the reports somewhere and…

"Gaara!"

A figure leaped up onto the top of the plateau. It was Kankuro, Gaara's older brother, dressed for battle with his Suna hitai-ate, combat fatigues, and scroll containing his puppets. "Something's going on in the village and…" he seemed to notice Sasori for the first time. Intelligent eyes took in the robes that Sasori wore. "Akatsuki!" He glanced at Gaara. "They're making their move now?"

"Looks that way," Gaara replied, never taking his eyes off his enemy.

"So who's short, dark, and ugly?" Kankuro asked, unlimbering his scroll and unfurling it. Three puffs of smoke later and his puppets, Karasu, Kuroari, and Sanshouo surrounded Kankuro. Gaara's eyes widened when he saw his brother's puppets, because he suddenly remembered what Sasori meant to the village. And he also realized something else.

"Stop, Kankuro," Gaara said. He didn't yell. It was a simple statement but it brought Kankuro up short. "It's too dangerous for you to get involved here."

"Why?"

"Your opponent is Sasori."

"S-Sasori!" Kankuro spluttered, face pale beneath the purple face paint. "Akasuna no Sasori? The puppet master?"

Gaara nodded. "Yes. And thanks to you, I've also figured out his secret. The photos of Sasori that we have all show him as a young man with red hair, hence the Red Sand moniker. This man is not Sasori."

"But that was what, fifty years ago?" Kankuro protested. "It's not like he'll remain the same, Gaara."

"Perhaps," Gaara admitted, "but I think that we're not fighting Sasori himself but one of his puppets. Listen." The two of them fell silent, and, aside from the muted clap of explosions from the Goku and Deidara fight, they could hear a faint clicking and clattering noise coming from Sasori. "You hear it?"

Kankuro smirked. "Yeah, I hear it." He flicked his fingers and his own puppets made a noise that exactly matched Sasori. "It's the same noise my boys make." He grinned wolfishly. "He's a puppet for sure."

"The question has become where is the real Sasori?" Gaara asked, deferring to his brother's expertise.

"He'd have to be somewhere close," Kankuro replied. "Puppetry isn't something that's a real long range technique. If you haven't seen him by now, then he's probably hiding somewhere close." Kankuro smirked. "Like in his puppet!"

The Akatsuki robe fell off the puppet that was not Sasori, revealing the segmented arms with the signature joints of a puppet. The puppet was on all fours, its back a huge oni face, the scorpion tail coming out of it and waving like a snake. The left arm ended in the metal club that had tried to break Gaara's barrier before. That was all he could see, but Gaara knew you could never, ever, take a puppet at face value. Chances were, that puppet had more than its fair share of tricks hidden away inside it. Gaara knew it was one of his chief frustrations when he sparred with Kankuro.

"So," the puppet rumbled, "you saw through Hiruko, did you? Not bad. For ones so young, you both show talent." The head twitched left then right, jerking like an owl. "Very well. I'll reward that talent."

The oni face lifted up and a new person stood up from inside. Neither Gaara nor Kankuro could kept the shock off their faces. Their opponent was Sasori alright. He was the same as in the photos. Red hair, youthful, attractive features, middling height and build, everything was the same. There was just one problem with that though.

Those pictures were nearly five decades old.

* * *

><p>Yeah, I know this was late. Blame Skyrim and Arkham City. Anyway, here's my Christmas and New Year's present to all of you out there.<p>

Later!

~WingedFreedom622

**Glossary**

**Sabaku no Yari (Desert Spear): **Original jutsu. Basically a bunch of long, thin, _sharp_ spikes of sand impale you from, well, just about everywhere.


	5. Mr Satan's Peril

Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ or Naruto. If I did, I would be a very rich man.

Also, keep in mind that for one of the flashbacks, Gohan never became the Great Saiyaman because I don't like Great Saiyaman. Instead he just went with the Gold Fighter thing.

* * *

><p>Deidara snarled and let fly with more C2 creatures. The Super Saiyan across from him didn't seem too concerned with the giant mosquitoes coming at him. Someone else would've been unnerved by a mosquito whose <em>nose<em> was longer than Goku's armspan, but the warrior himself was less than concerned it seemed. There was a whole swarm of the things, but Goku dove headlong into the fray, vanishing and reappearing with unbelievable speed. On a few of the shorter-range jumps, Deidara saw, quite clearly, that Goku was leaving afterimages behind, reappearing in one place before he'd fully vanished from another.

"How…is…he…this…_fast_!" Deidara complained as he watched a few of the mosquitoes miss, the clay insects sticking into the plateau like a twisted lawn dart. "Damn blond haired bastard!" The insects went off, blowing sizable craters in the thick rock, but doing no more than that.

Goku appeared above the insects, a hand extended, ki glowing, and wiped them out in one tremendous blast. While he was distracted, the dragon, circling overhead, flicked its tail, raining bombs the size of soccer balls down on Goku's head. Again the fighter vanished and reappeared above the bombardment.

Just like Deidara had planned.

The Iwa-nin grinned with satisfaction and hurled a few small bombs at the flying warrior. The balls were spiked, small balls of clay stuck with senbon. They were Deidara's version of hand grenades and they worked very well.

"Eat this! Harinezumidama!"

Goku had just enough time to see the balls come up at him before they exploded. Goku screamed as the needles, driven by the force of the explosions, plunged into his body. They didn't rip through, thank God, but they hurt like a bitch! Goku snarled, letting the rage of the Super Saiyan transformation sweep over him like a wave, wiping out the pain, reducing it to a dull throbbing. He pulled needles out of his chest and shoulders, where most of them had stuck. Blood welled from the wounds, turning Goku's chest red, but it stopped readily enough.

"Harinezumidama!"

Another round of spiked balls came his way. "It won't work again! HAA!" Goku thrust out a hand and blew the balls back towards Deidara with a yell and a pulse of ki. Deidara's face was a mask of open shock right before the wave of ki hammered him like a huge drum and blew him right off the cliff.

For the umpteenth time that battle, Deidara found himself tumbling across Sunagakure. "This is getting ridiculous," Deidara growled to himself right before he smashed through an office building, shaking the entire block with his impact. The missing-nin sat upright. "Bastard," he snarled. "There should be a law against being that powerful." A burst of golden light caught his attention. "Coming to finish me off, hmm?" He smirked to himself and set the mouths in his hands to gnawing on the clay he had left. There wasn't much but the dragon would be enough to delay this guy until Deidara was ready.

He hoped.

Goku surged toward the building where his opponent had landed, cutting a gold swath across the night sky above Suna. He was just setting up to fire a ki blast into the building when the dragon entered the fray again, trumpeting a battle roar to the heavens, rattling people in their shoes and windows and doors in their frames.

Goku didn't need any prodding to adjust his aim. "You're getting in the way!" the Super Saiyan screamed at it as he released the blast. The shot swept up, smashing right into the dragon's belly. There was a second's resistance that Goku could feel, like he was trying to push his hand through a wall without winding up first, then the blast ripped through, cutting the creature right in half. The two sections of clay passed right by the warrior on either side before they hit the ground, raising two huge puffs of sand over the village. He spun back around, heart pounding. Goku was eager to make up the time he had lost by dealing with the dragon. He had to keep Mr. Explosion on his heels otherwise he'd be able to come up with something a lot worse than the dragon and the needle balls.

Goku vanished, fazing out in a blur.

He reappeared in the building. It was an office building of some kind. There were tables and chairs, pictures and florescent lighting, potted plants and books, and every other sort of material that made up an office building. They were all scattered all over the place, upended, no doubt, by Deidara's sudden intrusion. Goku's emerald eyes took in everything, looking for some sign of where Deidara was. Goku hadn't sensed him leave, so he had to be around there somewhere.

"Where are you?" Goku muttered.

The door to the office burst open and a dark figure charged through. Goku ducked under a fast haymaker. It was sloppy, leaving all kinds of vulnerable spots, spots that Goku gladly attacked. His feet and hands were a blur as he hammered the interloper again and again. He drew back with a mighty cry and drove his fist home.

Flesh split under his fist and Goku's arm burst out of Deidara's back. It was indeed Deidara, Goku could see now, thanks to the dim golden light by his newly reappeared aura. The Super Saiyan ripped his arm free. Deidara collapsed lifelessly to the floor. "Whoops," Goku said, rubbing the back of his head. "I'm sorry about that. I guess I overdid it. I didn't think you would go down that easily."

"Who went down easy, hmm?" Deidara asked as he stood up.

"What!" Goku breathed, recoiling at the sight of a supposed dead man standing again, heedless of the gaping chest wound he was sporting. Goku's mind whirled as he tried to think of a way to explain this. He settled on the only possible explanation. "This isn't fair! Panda guy didn't say anything about fighting zombies!"

The real Deidara, on a roof a few buildings over, smirked and made a single hand seal.

KABOOM!

The top three floors of that office building were blown clean off, shaking the entire village, knocking over stands and kiosks, shattering windows, and pelting those poor souls who had yet to make it into the shelters with a prickly rain of glass and building materials. "For sure this time," Deidara fumed. "I got him for sure now!"

A shifting in the rubble drew Deidara's attention and his jaw dropped as a huge slab of concrete or adobe or whatever the Suna ninja used to build their homes shifted, slid to one side, then was tossed away. The ground rumbled somewhat when it hit. Deidara could see a figure with spiky gold hair standing upright in the rubble, jade eyes looking around.

Looking for him.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Deidara grumbled, even as he implemented his backup plans. He molded a series of seals and the dragon's halves dissolved and turned into long worms made up of balls of clay. They burrowed underground and began to scatter themselves around, lacing the entire area with mines.

"Come on, bastard," Deidara murmured, hopping down to the ground and into the one spot that wasn't covered with the powerful hidden explosives. He drew out a kunai, attached a flare tag to it then hurled the kunai up. A flare tag was just like an explosive tag in appearance, but that was where the similarities ended. An explosive tag would detonate and cause damage. All a flare tag did was burn brightly and there were even different colors, so signals could be sent to shinobi in the field from their commanders nearby and they would be able to coordinate a mission better. Mostly they were used for sounding retreat or showing when a location had been taken or lost and their use hadn't been widespread since the Third Shinobi War.

The hard white glare of the tag got Goku's attention, just as Deidara hoped, and the warrior appeared on the ground in front of him, gold aura vanishing into oblivion when his feet met sand. Deidara was pleased to see that Goku hadn't gotten out of the prior explosion unscathed. New gashes had opened up on his arms, most likely where he'd crossed them to block flying debris. One had gotten through, however, smacking him above the hairline. Blood, dried by the heat of the explosion, was crusted to the left side of his face, and it caked the Super Saiyan's gold hair. Goku was breathing harder. The explosion had done a number on him, sure, but the resolve in his green eyes was unchanged. He was still more than willing and able to fight.

"Feeling the heat, hmm?" Deidara asked, smirking to conceal the nervousness that he felt about tangling with this guy. It had seemed so easy at first, but now that the man had shown himself to have the same abilities as Son Gohan, the battle had swung heavily around.

"Just getting my second wind," Goku replied, giving Deidara a hawkish glare, nearly pinning the missing-nin to the spot with its ferocity. "I hope you don't think this battle's over."

"Oh I know," Deidara replied, still smirking. "Which is why I've prepared this place for you."

"What are you talking about?" Goku asked.

"KATSU!" Deidara shouted, making his seal and springing the trap. Explosions, tremendous in their intensity, terrible in their heat and concussions, went off all at once, turning the area into a caldron of heat and flame. Goku's cries were just audible above it all and they weren't pleasant. The fires were visible from all over the village, the smoke plume blotting out the moon and stars. "AHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Deidara crowed. "How about that, huh!" He continued laughing until a wind swept away the smoke and haze. The more it cleared, the less and less Deidara laughed, his face slowly going from gloating to horrified. "It…it can't be! You're a dead man! You have to be!"

Goku had been blown off his feet when the detonations started going off, but he was getting to his feet, grunting as his various wounds stung, ached, throbbed, and otherwise alerted him that he wasn't okay. The concussions had opened a few of his smaller injuries again, letting them bleed anew, and he'd picked up a few new ones as well.

But the Super Saiyan just kept getting back up no matter how many times he was knocked down. And his glare was still just as heated as it had been at the beginning of the battle.

"My turn," Goku ground out, slipping into his stance. Before Deidara could do anything, a fist slammed into his face hard enough to break his nose in that moment. Molten white pain blotted out everything else, quickly followed by more pain as he flew through a bunch of obstructions. When Deidara's world stopped spinning and he was able to focus, he found himself laying in a pile of rubble. A haze hung over everything and he could see Goku walking towards him through the holes that had been made in the buildings he'd been put through.

Deidara's vision blurred suddenly and his head swam with nausea. Despite his condition and his smashed nose, he found himself chuckling before bursting out laughing. "You," Deidara said, standing up and stumbling. Unbelievable. He'd been taken down so much from one blow. "You are a very interesting man." His fingers flashed through hand seals. "I can't believe I have to use such an ugly jutsu." He finished his sequence and slammed his palm to the ground right as Goku shot at him in a burst of gold. "Doton! Ganban Kyu!"

Two sections of rock shot up around Goku. The Super Saiyan had just enough time to look surprised before the rocks slammed together in a thunderous collision that echoed over the entire village. For a long moment, the world was silent of even the calls of the nighttime animals of the desert. Deidara breathed a sigh of relief. He was practically out of chakra.

The rocks shook. They trembled. Deidara's jaw dropped open. For once, the ever-talkative missing-nin was struck dumb as golden light erupted from the crevice that was opening in the stone. Goku's rising yell followed soon after as the Super Saiyan pushed the would-be tomb away. He gathered himself and Deidara could _feel_ the gathering power. The lights seemed to dim, the stars appeared to fizzle, and even the moon became a pallid speck in the sky.

Then Goku's power erupted in a brilliant flare of brightness that turned night into day. When the dust settled, Goku was standing by himself. The ravaged buildings were gone. The surrounding city had been swept away, dissolved by Goku's fury. All that was left in the perfectly circular field was Goku, Deidara, and windswept sand.

"What are you?" Deidara whispered. He sat, out of chakra, out of ideas, and out of time, only able to watch as Goku made it to him and towered over the defeated missing-nin.

"I won't let you hurt Gaara!" Goku said simply. It wasn't a grandiose statement. It was a simple fact and nothing Deidara had done had even slowed Goku down. He'd bit the Super Saiyan, nibbled at his power; all the while completely unaware of the fire he was playing with.

"Then you have failed," a new voice announced.

"What?" Goku said, starting to turn. He screamed in pain as a gash suddenly ripped itself across his back. He spun around, swinging for the fences as he did, but his new assailant was already clear. A young man with red hair was standing behind him, a slumped figure draped over his shoulder. Goku hissed in a breath when he saw who it was. "Panda guy! Gaara!"

"You're taking too long, Deidara," Sasori said, fixing his partner with a stony look.

"Sorry, Sasori," Deidara replied, wincing as he set his nose. The stab of pain made his head swim again. "He's tough."

"Then you should try using something other than explosions," Sasori answered. "Such as what I just did."

Goku backed up until his back was against a wall, a move that forced Deidara and Sasori to come at him from the front. "I'm not going to let you get away with Gaara," Goku called to Sasori, who only huffed with derision.

"You don't have a choice," Sasori said. "I've already ended the battle."

"What do you…" Goku started to say but didn't get any further than that as pain, undiluted _pain_ ripped through him. The Super Saiyan dropped to his knees, howling, clawing at his back, where the hurt was the most intense. It was like someone had laid a white-hot brand across his skin. It seared his flesh, made the world swirl around him, and Goku could see white flashes popping in his vision.

"Your poison, hmm?" Deidara asked, standing over Goku as he topped forward into the dirt, no longer having the breath to scream. It didn't seem like he could move either, since his body had gone deathly still.

"Yes," Sasori said simply. "He and the Kazekage's brother will both linger for three agonizing days, unable to move, and then they'll expire." He made a hand seal and Hiruko appeared, the tail sitting limply. Sasori tossed Gaara to Deidara then stepped into his puppet and hunched down. The oni face dropped down and the puppet clattered to life. "Let's go," Sasori rumbled through the puppet's mouth. "We have to get the Ichibi back to the cave."

They walked away, both limping, but for different reasons.

"No," Goku grunted, straining to move a finger, but he couldn't. He could barely stay conscious with the pain wracking him, tearing out his stomach it felt like. He hadn't hurt like this in a long time. "No!" He managed to get one hand extended, fingers groping at nothing but air. Desperation seized him and that brought with it a moment of clarity and focus. "NO!"

A ki blast erupted out of his hand. Both Akatsuki spun around in surprise, but they were too late as the ball of yellow-white death sped for them.

It missed and shot into the sky, where it blew up harmlessly, a ball of power that rattled the foundations of the village with its force. Goku's arm dropped and he could no longer keep his eyes open. Gold hair faded and drooped limply back to Goku's usual black mop, his jade eyes fading back to their usual dark color. "No," Goku whispered once more then was still.

* * *

><p><em>Earlier that day<em>

* * *

><p>Konoha was the hive of activity that Gohan remembered as he walked through the streets with Sakura and Naruto, looking for things to furnish the new apartment that Gohan and Naruto were going to share, since the old rundown shack that Naruto used to live in had long since been rented out to another. Well, Naruto and Gohan were looking, Sakura was clinging to Gohan's arm, as if she was afraid to let the young man get more than ten feet from him.<p>

He'd said as much.

"Damn straight I'm holding on!" Sakura had answered in mock vehemence. "Otherwise you'll get beat up, knocked out, killed, vanished, and otherwise torn away from me!" They had had a good laugh over that. Naturally, they had ended up discussing what they'd each been doing for training during the three-year interlude when they couldn't see each other. Sakura and Naruto had pretty much the same story, though Sakura's focused on medical training where Naruto's seemed to be a bit of everything. Gohan suspected that Jiraiya was trying to reset the somewhat shaky foundations that Naruto had as a shinobi.

"So, Gohan," Sakura said finally as they left a small furniture store, empty-handed. The shop's prices were ridiculous and nothing they had was even remotely comfortable enough. A home was a place to relax, not try to sit and sleep on a board. "What did you do for training?"

Gohan shrugged. "Went to school, fought in a martial arts tournament, saved the world from an ancient evil, and fought with Piccolo and Dad. Same thing as always." He'd gone a few more steps before seeing the slack-jawed Naruto and Sakura. "What?"

"That's it!" Naruto said loudly, pointing a demanding finger in Gohan's face. "You're telling us everything!"

"Well," Gohan replied. "The school and tournament weren't that big a deal, except for the whole Sennen Goroshi thing, but…"

"Wait, whoa, stop!" Sakura interrupted. "Sennen Goroshi?"

"Yeah! I told you about the guy who took credit for beating Cell right?"

"Sure," Naruto answered. "It was Hercule or something right?"

"You moron," Sakura shot back, leaning around Gohan to give Naruto an exasperated glare. "It was Mr. Satan. How the hell did you come up with Hercule?"

"I dunno."

Sakura sighed. "You were saying?" She asked, looking up at Gohan.

"Oh right. Well…"

* * *

><p>The World Tournament was an infectious place, Gohan had to admit. There was screaming, cheering, drunken hollering, and all kinds of other raucous noises. It brought a grin to his face as he stood in the ring. Across from him, Mr. Satan, the 'Savior of the World' was showboating, throwing victory signs up left and right, the ridiculous white cape about his shoulders flowing in the wind, the sun reflecting off the huge belt that looked like it come straight from a pro wrestling ring. The wardrobe, much like the man, was all for show. After all this was an exhibition match between the Gold Fighter, the newest hero in Satan City, and Satan himself, the man who'd rescued the world from Cell. It was a perfect chance for Satan to strut about and for Gohan to deliver a particularly stinging humiliation.<p>

_Sakura would kill me if she knew I was using this technique,_ he thought with a smirk, his jade eyes glinting ominously. The announcer, a boisterous man with a clear voice that could capture the audience to pump them up for the match, bounded up the steps, just as energetically as Satan himself.

"LAAAAAADIES AND GENTLEMEEEN!" He crowed, voice booming to every corner of the stadium, "IT'S TIME FOR THE OPENING MATCH!" The crowd started screaming and stamping their approval, the stamping hard enough to make the finely cut marble tiles under his feet vibrate. "THE DUEL OF THE HEROES! MR. SATAN VS. THE GOLD FIGHTER!"

The screaming redoubled and only made Gohan smirk all the harder. He didn't want the fame that came from defeating Cell. That would destroy what quiet existence he was able to lead. No, what Gohan wanted to do, and had for years, was to teach Mr. Satan a lesson in humility. It must've shown on his face because Satan suddenly went white and backed up a step or two.

"Y-you ready, F-Fighter person?" Satan stammered.

"You don't know who I am, do you," Gohan said, voice low and dangerous. It was all an act. Gohan didn't mean Satan any permanent harm, except maybe rendering him unable to sit down for three years straight. He'd conveniently forgotten to tell Mr. Satan that.

"S-Should I?"

"Yes. You should. I'm that little boy that fought Cell years ago."

Satan turned another shade of white. Gohan had to choke down a laugh. He literally could hear Satan's knees knocking together. "Y-you are?" Gohan had never heard a man squeak before.

"I am," Gohan replied, giving his best Vegeta smirk. "And you and I both know what happened that day. _I_ defeated Cell, not you. And I'm not happy that you decided to take credit for yourself."

"S-so what!" Satan shot back, hardly able to speak through his stutter. "Y-you going to tell people what really happened?"

This time Gohan did laugh. "No. What I am going to do, though, is give you a very public lesson in humility."

Satan started sweating bullets. "Wh-what are you going to do?"

"READY!"

Gohan tensed up, ready to burst into motion.

"BEGIN!"

Satan screamed, so high pitched that Gohan heard a couple dogs start barking, and backpedaled. Gohan, for his part, allowed his aura to flare to life, as he took very deliberate steps towards Satan, leaving no room for doubt that he was stalking Satan like a lion would stalk a deer fawn. Gohan supposed he cut a pretty imposing figure in his Saiyan body armor, which he'd had Bulma make for him as a sort of disguise. Normally it wasn't allowed in the tournament, but since this was only an exhibition match, allowances had been made.

He was about to blow that imposing figure straight to hell.

Gohan vanished.

"What?" Satan asked, backing up. "Where'd he go?" He glanced around, didn't see anyone then sucked in his tears, drew himself up, and let out a belly laugh. "BWAHAHAHAHAHA! I guess that Gold Fighter guy isn't as brave as they say! He turned chicken and ran! What a wuss! HAHAHAHAHA!"

"Who's a wuss?"

A burst of golden light and a rising chirp made the laughter die out on Satan's lips. Satan spun around and saw Gohan glaring down at his nose at him, eyes hard and unforgiving, every line of muscle looking as hard as a rock, as if the Gold Fighter had been carved out of the same marble they stood on.

Satan's courage quailed and he bolted for the stairs, running as hard as he could.

To Gohan, he might as well have been an invalid. "You're not getting away," Gohan said as he appeared beside Satan, having crossed the expanse of arena in a single blurred bound. "Now take your medicine!" He folded his hands into the seal for the Tiger. "KONOHAGAKURE HIDEN TAIJUTSU OUGI!"

Fingers met ass.

Satan sailed right over the stadium wall, screaming and holding his rear.

"SENNEN GOROSHI!"

Every eye in the stadium watched Satan sail out of sight then, with slack jaws and bugging eyes, looked back to Gohan, who was still shrouded in his aura, arms thrust straight out from where he'd rammed his fingers up Mr. Satan's rear and sent him flying. Gohan stood up and smirked. "I cannot tell you how long I've been waiting to do that," he remarked to the silent stadium, his voice carrying perfectly, even without a microphone. "Bye now!"

Gohan blasted off into the clear afternoon sky and was a golden dot in seconds.

* * *

><p>"You did what!" Sakura shrieked as Gohan finished his story. Naruto was rolling on the ground, struggling to breath he was laughing so hard. "Sennen Goroshi! On a <em>civilian!<em>"

"It's not like he didn't have it coming!" Gohan protested, patting the air, trying to keep Sakura from belting him one. Sakura drew back and swung. For the fences too. "SAKURA!"

Smack!

She hit him lightly on the back of the head, her face flushed as she remembered her introduction to the technique, courtesy of Kakashi-sensei and Naruto. "Idiot. I can't believe you would do that!" She crossed her arms and huffed. "So I guess you won the tournament then?"

"You kidding me?" Gohan replied, looking grim. "That was the last funny thing to happen that day. For the next month or so after for that matter."

"What happened?" Sakura asked as Naruto sat up, no longer laughing.

"Majin Buu happened," Gohan fumed. He went on to talk about how Gohan, in his match against Kibito, had transformed to Super Saiyan Two only to have his ki stolen by two guys who'd been possessed by magic. That ki was later given to Majin Buu to resurrect the pink monstrosity from his eons-long slumber. He recounted the frantic battle and his being beaten nearly to death at the hands of the monster. He spoke of going to the Supreme Kai's world and training with the Z sword, how his father had decided to test the blade's sharpness and how it had snapped, releasing the Elder Kai from his imprisonment in the sword.

"So the Old Kai decides to release all my power. He spends ten hours dancing around in circles, reading manga, and all kinds of crap. I thought he was just pulling a fast one on me, but it really worked!"

"Did it?" Sakura asked, eyeing him critically.

"Doesn't look like it did," Naruto agreed, squinting at Gohan.

"I guess I have to show you," Gohan replied. "I can't really describe what he did." He led them to a nearby training ground where he set his feet and let out a yell and transformed into Super Saiyan Two, his aura larger and louder than before, his body outlined in bioelectricity, which buzzed and cackled as it danced over him. Gohan grunted, as if he was trying to move a mountain, let out a longer, louder scream this time. The ground bucked and shattered. A bubble of hard light formed around him as the shattered rocks began to rise, held aloft only by Gohan's ki. When his aura expanded outward and the chirping increased in intensity until it was so fast it sounded breathy, Gohan stopped.

Sakura and Naruto could hardly move as they looked at Gohan. His power was that great, so fearsome that it was like looking into the eyes of a very angry dragon. Both shinobi recoiled when Gohan met their eyes and they had a huge flash of the very creature, mouth open wide in a great roar, looming behind him. The electricity was skittering over the outside of the aura now, no longer tied to Gohan's body. When it seemed like they would suffocate from the power crushing them, Gohan started in again.

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" The initial yell quickly faded into grunts as Gohan tried to curl his body into the familiar low squat they'd come to associate with this kind of thing. As he did it seemed like his own power was resisting him, his hair began to fade from gold to black again. It was a slow at first but quickly rushed ahead, as if Gohan had had an inkbottle smashed over his skull. The aura didn't lose its enormity, but it too went from gold to blue. With a final scream, a white light burst out of Gohan, blinding them all.

When it faded, Gohan stood erect, completely normal looking.

"So you transformed back," Naruto said. "How is that an improvement?"

Gohan smirked and Sakura felt like she'd touched an electric wire. Sure Gohan _looked_ normal enough, but just by the way he smirked, she could tell that the mentality from his Super Saiyan transformations was very much intact. She could see the contained ire in his eyes, which made them seem infinitely more dangerous. She could see that his hair, while black, remained as it had before, a long straight crown of spikes with a single long lock that swept down over his forehead.

But oddly enough, Sakura couldn't feel that crushing power anymore. Just a moment ago, she'd been sure she would suffocate from the enormity of it. But now it just seemed like Gohan was standing there as he usually did, not bleeding crushing ki everywhere. Then he flexed his hand and Sakura swore she saw ghostly wisps of lightning crackle over his fingers.

"No," she murmured. "He's on an entirely different level from before."

"Right," Gohan answered. "This is what Old Kai did to me. He unlocked all my potential then gave me the ability to crush all that power down to the point where you can't even feel my ki if I'm not using it. You can only feel what it's really like if I use it. Watch." He slashed a hand and the ground exploded as if split by a sword. The second it did, Sakura was driven onto her heels, just by the energy that pounded out if him in that one motion.

It was like getting hit by a five-ton block of ice and had made her break out in a cold sweat just in the second it had been present. "Wow," she whispered. "That's…intense. It's like your usual power is an ocean and you're keeping it locked up behind a dam and the only way out is through a garden hose."

Gohan thought about it then nodded. "That's one way to put it, I guess. I'm doing more damage with less ki. I can keep this up for a lot longer than I could Super Saiyan Two. Another benefit is that there's no strain on my body. I could keep this up indefinitely if I wanted to, but I don't."

"Why not?" Naruto asked, sitting up. The little display that had put Sakura on her heels had blown him right over onto his back, where he'd laid motionless, like rabbit trying to avoid the hawk's eyes.

"Because," Gohan replied as his demeanor shifted and Sakura suddenly realized he was back to normal. It was a _lot_ subtler than what she was used to from him. There was no light show, no concussions or deafening yells. It was something in his eyes again. They'd just…lost that cold intensity that could suddenly burn hot. "If I stayed like that all the time, I'd end up breaking everything. I would end up living in a world of cardboard and eggshells."

"So did this help you defeat Majin Buu?" Sakura asked as Gohan started heading back into town. They still had shopping to finish but Gohan hadn't wanted to do this in the middle of Konoha and now Sakura could see why. And, she realized with a start, this was what he'd used to take on Orochimaru.

Gohan shook his head. "Not really. At least, it wasn't all this. I have you two to thank for that."

"Us?" Naruto asked, cocking his head.

"What did we do?" Sakura added.

Gohan smiled. "You taught me to see underneath the underneath. Isn't that what Kakashi's always saying?"

"Yeah, but…"

"We were desperate," Gohan interrupted, getting a faraway look in his eye, "Majin Buu had killed almost everyone on the planet. The only ones left were my brother Goten, his friend Trunks, Piccolo, Mr. Satan, Dende, and me. Five of us left on the entire planet, if you exclude Tien and Chiaotzu. It was just after I'd returned to Earth from Supreme Kai's world. Goten and Trunks have this technique were they can combine bodies and abilities. It's called Fusion. The only problem was that Buu could absorb people and use their abilities that way. I was only one left who could fight Buu…"

* * *

><p>Gohan gagged as Buu's fist hammered into his gut, doubling the young man over. A hammer blow fell on his back, eliciting a cry of pain, which bled into an oomph when he hit the ground. The world was shaking as the saiyan's impact shattered rocks that had laughed off time itself. Majin Buu, garbed in loose white pants and a purple vest trimmed in a yellow puffy material on the shoulders and down the front, looked down with displeasure, black and red eyes reflecting the bloodlust and anger that seemed to drive the creature forward.<p>

"Pitiful fool," he said. "You were so cocky when you said you were going to kill Majin Buu. What happened? You're so weak now!" The tortured earth shuttered, quivering, before blowing into a prickly hail as Gohan released his power to free himself from the tons of debris that had pinned him down.

_He's outclassed me,_ Gohan thought in desperation. _How do I fight this thing? I can't even hit him!_ As much as he hated to admit it, Gohan was powerless to stop this new creature that now had the strength of Gotenks and the intelligence of Piccolo. Gohan's aura flared blue again and he launched himself into the sky again, a streak in the bright sun.

His barrage of blows on Majin Buu was futile at best, the creature not even moving to block, letting Gohan's blows batter him. In only moments the monster was an unrecognizable pink pulp, but still Gohan kept on, screaming the entire time from both fear and anger. He finished with a thunderous Kamehameha that would've killed Cell in one go once upon a time.

Buu literally pulled himself back together and smiled dangerously as Gohan retreated a short distance, the terror that was tearing his stomach apart finally showing on his face. "Yes," Buu purred. "You see now, don't you? You can't beat Majin Buu anymore!"

Gohan turned and blasted earthward, running as fast as he could. If there was one thing he'd learned in his time in the other world, it was that there were other ways to win a battle. A thunderclap echoed over the barren world as Gohan shattered through the sound barrier and kept going. All the power in the world couldn't help him here, so he was going to try something else. He had to. It was only him and no one else. Goku was dead, so was Vegeta, and Piccolo and Gotenks, their final hope, were worse than dead, absorbed into the creature itself.

Buu's laughter was the only sound in the silent world. "Yes, that's right!" he crowed. "Run! Flee from Majin Buu! It will do you no good! I can feel where you are!"

Gohan snarled under his breath but didn't look back, knowing it would cost him precious speed, speed he needed to stay alive long enough to come up with a plan. Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura, Kakashi, Orochimaru, Itachi, all of those fearsome allies and adversaries had one thing in common. They were supreme strategists, even Naruto, who was usually the most unthinking person Gohan knew aside from his own father. They'd shown him that strategy and tactics could be just as deadly as the power to blow up a planet like it was nothing. It would save his life today.

He hoped.

"Where are you going?" Majin Buu asked from beside Gohan as they raced for the ground. Gohan's shock paralyzed him for a second, but he recovered quickly and, instead of retaliating like Buu hoped, he brought his hands to the side of his head, palms in, fingers spread.

"Taiyoken!"

The blast of light was immediate and blinding. Buu howled and stopped pursuing Gohan to tend to his eyes and Gohan took the opportunity to set up for his final escape. He'd found the area where he wanted to hide and harass Buu to keep the creature interested. It was an area of rock escarpments, outcrops, canyons, caves, and other obstacles and it was close enough that Gohan could taste it, but first he had to lose Buu, throw him off long enough for Gohan to get himself good and hidden.

He thought of the number of times he'd tried to pummel an opponent in that other world and had only shattered a thick log instead. It wasn't the same technique as the Kawarimi, but its purpose would be the same.

"What's wrong, Buu?" Gohan jeered, taunting his enemy. "Got something in your eye?" The monster howled, swinging in anger, right as his sight began to return. He saw the black, orange, and blue blur floating right in front of him and went on the attack. Buu's hand sliced right through Gohan's neck and should've killed the young man then and there. Gohan's face was a mask of shock when he was hit by the attack, then his body wavered, like a mirage in the desert, and faded completely.

"Where did he go?" Buu asked, looking around.

From below, Gohan pressed himself up against the outcrop he'd ducked behind after using the Afterimage technique. He couldn't believe he'd actually gotten away clean. "That's the first part done," Gohan murmured to himself as he dropped to the ground, no longer flying. His ki, already practically invisible because of the Old Kai's magic, was squashed down even lower, hiding it from Majin Buu's sixth sense. It would work, Gohan knew, because he himself had often been frustrated in his attempts to locate shinobi using the same sense because most shinobi concealed their ki, chakra, whatever you wanted to call it, out of pure habit.

Now he had to come up with a way to keep Majin Buu interested in him and find a way to defeat the monster. _He has a weakness,_ Gohan thought. _He has to. Cell did. Frieza did. Vegeta did. Raditz did. Nappa did. Everyone I've ever fought had a weakness of some kind. There's no such thing as an invincible opponent._ He watched the dot floating over the barren landscape a few miles away. _So what's yours?_

For the next couple of minutes, the battle became a game of cat and mouse, Gohan flinging ki blasts at Majin Buu before retreating into the shadows by the time the creature could find where they'd come from. A couple times it had come frightfully close to disaster as Buu had reacted faster than Gohan thought. In one instance, Majin Buu had literally been close enough for Gohan to touch with no effort, but the pink monstrosity had moved on. The entire time Gohan had been wracking his brain for an answer to his problem.

Then, when Buu had been close enough to touch, Gohan's eyes had landed on Gotenk's vest and it had hit him like a ton of bricks. Gotenks. Fusion! That was the answer. Every fusion had a time limit of a strict half hour. Gotenks had been absorbed at the start of his fusion, roughly twenty minutes ago. Ten minutes. That was all he had to live for and then, Gohan hoped, the fusion would come undone and without Gotenks boosting Buu's abilities Gohan would have a shot at defeating him once and for all.

Of course, it was entirely possible that the absorbed Gotenks wouldn't come undone inside the monster, but it was something Gohan was going to have to chance.

With five minutes left, Buu had gotten weary of looking for Gohan and had started blasting the landscape, trying to flush Gohan out. Gohan knew that he had to stop Buu from thinking about the time limit, which might happen at any second with Piccolo's mind augmenting the monster's own. Gohan had to take a chance and confront Buu in open combat. Five minutes. Hold out that long and he would have the advantage.

And to get Buu's attention, he would use another technique he'd seen in the world with Konoha, one he'd invented himself in a desperate attack on Orochimaru. The twin Kamehameha balls in Gohan's hands lit his face with a hard, eerie, light. He steeled himself for the beating about to come and sprang out of hiding. Buu's attention was on him in seconds, but it was seconds the monster didn't have.

"Kamehame…HAAAAA!" Gohan thundered, launching the first blast. The attack roared up like Shenlong himself. It splashed like the water of a hose when it hit Buu and stopped. Gohan could feel the monster straining against the attack. He also felt it begin to be pushed back by Buu's colossal might. But Gohan wasn't done yet. "GEMINO!"

He launched the second Kamehameha. The second mixed and melded with the first and they both exploded in a detonation that blew away the landscape that had hid Gohan, even from as high up as it was. The winds were ferocious, the light from the explosion visible from space. When it finally stopped, Majin Buu was just so much pink putty scattered around the sky.

The putty began to stream together, reforming. Gohan had only seconds. Buu couldn't see. Gohan's time was now. He vanished, fazing out. The world stood still, stretching the faster Gohan went. It snapped back to normal as he appeared behind Buu, who was just finishing his reformation. Gohan's forearm hammered into Buu's temple, bending him sideways at the waist, stretching like bubble gum. Gohan seized the tentacle that sprouted from Buu's head and hit him again. The monster flew away, to the extent his antenna thing would let him before rebounding, as if made out of rubber. He snapped back like a rubber band, only for Gohan to hit him again.

Rinse and repeat as Gohan mimicked his father, unwittingly, battering Majin Buu across the sky. The entire time he blitzed the creature, Gohan was keeping an internal count of the time. Distracted by that for only a second, Gohan hit Buu too hard and when he flew out, the antenna ripped, freeing Majin Buu.

The creature came on screaming, unleashing a hellish ki barrage at Gohan. He deflected what he could, but it quickly overwhelmed him, the smoke cloud from the repeated hits quickly obscuring Gohan from view. A tendril fell from the cloud and Gohan emerged from it, plummeting, helpless.

Buu laughed and rushed down, closing quickly, just as Gohan started to clear the fog from his mind. His eyes widened as he saw Buu's hand in his face, palm glowing with bright pink ki. "Oh no!"

A golden disk of ki spun from out of nowhere and slashed the arm clean off at the shoulder. Buu broke off, not in pain, but in shock. He looked at his severed arm tumbling away, then to the stump, then his eyes tracked across the empty sky until he found the perpetrator.

"Keep your hands off my son," Goku snarled, his hair down to his waist and violently gold. The Super Saiyan Three looked thunderous, hard as marble and as unforgiving as a sword. The halo that had been over Goku's head the last time Gohan had seen his father was conspicuously absent. In its place hung a single silver earring with a gold ball at the end. Gohan remembered both the Old Kai and Supreme Kai wearing those same earrings.

"Dad," Gohan breathed. "You're alive!"

"Yeah," Goku answered, his voice much lower than before, something that happened with every transformation. "Old Kai gave me his life force, just so I could come back and defeat Buu."

"How?" Gohan asked, floating back up to his Dad's height, standing beside the other Super Saiyan. "He's strong. He absorbed Gotenks and Piccolo both, Dad."

"I know. I was watching from Supreme Kai's world." Goku gave his son a smirk that would've been a smile had Goku been in his normal state. "I'm proud of you Gohan. You did well. Now we're going to use Portara Fusion to beat him."

"Portara?" Gohan asked.

Goku nodded. He held up the earring. "Put this on your right ear and we'll fuse, no dance, no time limit. It's permanent but the upside is that it can fuse anyone. They don't have to match power levels or anything like that."

"Permanent?" Gohan asked as he turned the earring over. He noticed Buu suddenly lurch. It was a slight motion but Gohan had been waiting for it, watching Buu out of the corner of his eye for it. "Thanks Dad, but I don't think we'll need to."

"What makes you say that?" Goku asked.

Buu suddenly screamed as if his guts were being ripped out. Which, Gohan thought darkly, was a distinct possibility when he got his hands on the pink creature. Buu thrashed and wretched. "No!" He shouted. "Not now dammit! Not now!"

With a pop, the vest vanished and was replaced Piccolo's weighted cape. Gohan took one look at the horrified look on Buu's face and knew it was over. "Thanks everyone!" Gohan crowed to the sky, all but laughing with the thrill he had right then. He gave his dad a gleeful grin. "Excuse me a second, Dad."

He went on the attack.

* * *

><p>"Wow," Sakura breathed. "I'm proud of you, Gohan! You did great!"<p>

Gohan smiled in thanks, but it was brief. "I thought I did too. Turns out Buu had set me up. I underestimated how clever Piccolo could get sometimes. Buu ended up absorbing me and using my own power to beat my father to a pulp. If Vegeta hadn't come back and they hadn't used the Portara fusion…" Gohan shuddered. "I don't want to think about it."

"But you won," Sakura pointed out.

Gohan grinned. "We did." He let it go at that and Sakura didn't press the issue. She could only imagine what it was like to be captured and helpless inside some otherworldly creature, unable to use your abilities, help those who loved you, or even finish the fight that you'd risked everything on a final strategy. She hugged him tight, to let him know that whatever horror he'd gone through was over and she was here for him.

Gohan was startled, but returned the embrace, whispering his thanks in her ear.

* * *

><p>Late again. Legitimate excuse this time that doesn't involve Skyrim or Arkham City, (which are amazing games by the way. Go get them. <em>After<em> leaving a review ^_^). I wasn't happy with the first way the Deidara/Goku fight went. Originally, Goku had a much tougher time of it before I realized that Goku wouldn't go down _that_ easily. I'm still not satisfied, but I'm starting to see nothing but errors and that's always a bad sign, so here you go.

**Glossary**

**Sennen Goroshi (Thousand Years of Death/Pain): **If I have to explain this one, you're not a Naruto fan. (You have no idea how long I've been waiting to do that to Mr. Satan.)

**Doton: Ganban Kyu (Earth Style: Bedrock Coffin): **Two big slabs of rock try to crush you. Not a fun way to go, I would imagine.


	6. Aftermath

Disclaimer: Own nothing

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><p>The shopping took the rest of the day and Gohan remained silent for most of it. He didn't ignore his friends, but there seemed to be something on his mind every since they'd gotten him talking about Goku and the battle with Majin Buu. The young man, for his part, was thinking about those two yellow streaks that had followed him out of the gap between worlds. He thought it might've been his father and Piccolo but he couldn't be sure. He hoped it was his Dad and Piccolo. He'd hit the one that had come at him hard enough to kill a normal human easily.<p>

The ride back, he reflected, was smoother than the first time he'd come to this world. Bulma had told him that that might be the case. The Dragon, she explained, wasn't so much like her machine. She'd held up an old and ratty shirt as an example.

"Say this is the fabric that separates the dimensions," she'd explained. "My machine did this," she tore a hole. She held up a needle and thread next. "This is what the dragon does." She put the needle through and left a much smaller hole. The thread in the needle's eye linked the front and back of the shirt. "See?"

"Right," Gohan had nodded. "So what happens on the return trip?"

"It should be even easier," Bulma had replied. "Shenlong knows where he's going to send you now. I doubt he'll even go with you. In all likelihood, the passageway is still there and he'll send you through that way, using a lot less power to do so. You're worried about the seal thing you told us about, right?"

"Yeah. I'd rather not have to break that again."

"Shouldn't be a problem. Look here." She stretched the shirt until Gohan could see the gaps between cloth threads. "I think there are normal holes between dimensions. Why, I don't know, but I'm almost sure they're there. When Shenlong brought you back, he found two natural holes and linked them together. Since you're going back in a natural way, instead of the tear that I made the first time, it shouldn't be a problem."

"Still doesn't explain who those other two streaks were," Gohan muttered.

"Did you say something?" Sakura asked as she looked critically around the apartment. It was a comfortable place, on the third floor of a five-story apartment building. It was a far cry from Naruto's old place, which had been, for all practical purposes, one room. This place had a bathroom, combined kitchen and dining room, and two separate bedrooms. It was spacious yet cozy with a balcony and commanding view of the Monument and Hokage's Tower. The walls were a comfortable white, the hardwood floors polished and well kept. Both boys had liked it immediately.

Their furniture was secondhand but comfortable, which lent an oddly lived-in feel to the apartment. Sakura knew she was going to enjoy spending time here with Gohan and Naruto.

"Just thinking about those other two bolts that came out of the hole," Gohan replied as he lifted the end of the couch, moving the heavy furniture as if it were made of foam. Night had fallen about an hour ago, but Team Seven was preparing for the day tomorrow, when they would finally go out in search of Orochimaru and Sasuke. Sakura's heart started pounding with anticipation and nerves whenever she thought about it.

"You don't know?"

Gohan rubbed his face. "I think so. I think it was Piccolo and my Dad."

"How'd that happen?"

"I don't know. It could be any number of things, but they were the only ones who were outside when I brought out Shenlong." They stood in silence for a bit longer when Gohan's head snapped around, staring out the window. He'd felt a spike in ki, a long distance away.

"Gohan?" Sakura asked. "What's wrong?"

"I feel someone's ki shooting way up," Gohan replied, going to the window. He closed his eyes and allowed his sixth sense to take over. He focused in on the ki signature and felt both relief and shock to know that its source was familiar.

"Do you know who it is?"

"Oh yeah. It's Dad."

"You can tell that?"

"Sure. Anyone could if they learned how to sense ki or chakra in your case." His dark eyes grew worried. "I wonder why he transformed?"

"Is he fighting someone?"

"I think so. It feels that way."

"Can you tell who? Maybe he's fighting with that other person from your world."

Gohan was shaking his head even before she'd finished speaking. "No. If one of the people to come through was Dad, then that means the other one was Piccolo. They were the only ones on the hill with me. Those two wouldn't fight. At least I don't think so. It's been years since they were trying to kill each other."

Sakura looked startled. "They were enemies?"

"Sure, but that was before I was born. When my uncle showed up, they ended up fighting together and never stopped. After that it was Vegeta and Nappa and Piccolo was busy training me. Then we went to Namek and Piccolo was fighting for his home." He shrugged. "Somewhere along the line, Piccolo just stopped being an enemy. Vegeta too."

"Sounds like something Naruto would do," Sakura replied.

Gohan laughed. "Yeah, Dad and Naruto are a lot alike. I think that's why I haven't beaten him senseless like you do." They shared a laugh and stood at the window in silence as Gohan tried to get a better feel for the battle going on in a distant land. He was just barely able to pick out the other conflicting presences. "One's Gaara," he muttered.

"Gaara?" Sakura asked. "Sabaku no Gaara? The one from the Exams?"

"Yeah. I'm not about forget what he felt like." He shuddered as he remembered the evil chill that Gaara had given off. It was greatly muted now, not so overpowering and all-consuming. "He's lighter now."

"I hope so," Sakura replied. "He's the Kazekage. Leaders shouldn't go around killing their followers. It's bad for business."

"Really?" Gohan was shocked. Gaara? The Kazekage? "You sure we're talking about the same Gaara here?"

"Positive. The Chuunin Exams are in a month or two and Temari's been in and out of the village since then, setting up Suna's side of things. You know, how many participants they're sending, who they are, that kind of thing."

They lapsed into silence. Gohan's smile faded little by little and was replaced by a hawkish scowl. In a second, things went from bad to worse.

"Dad!" He shouted. "Gaara!" Gohan glanced back at Naruto's room but the blond had finished packing and was sleeping, dead to the world. They could hear the snores coming from behind the door.

"What happened?" Sakura asked, taking his elbow. "Gohan what's wrong."

"They…they went away," Gohan replied and he said it with such certainty that Sakura felt her blood turn to ice. It was suddenly very cold in the small apartment. Sakura pressed herself against Gohan's side. She could feel him trembling as she slipped an arm around his waist.

"What does that mean?"

"I can't feel them anymore," Gohan answered, his own hand tightening against her hip. "I can't."

"What does that mean? Come on, Gohan."

"Either they're unconscious or dead, that's what it means." He left Sakura at the window and sat down heavily on the couch, where he cradled his head in his hands, his knee bouncing with nervous tension. Sakura knew it was taking all he had not to run out onto that balcony and launch himself towards Suna. He could probably be there in no time flat. Sakura sat down next to him, for simple company. She knew he would be getting no sleep that night. According to Gohan, he'd lost his dad twice before. If it happened a third time, there was no telling how Gohan would take it. "Who could take down my Dad and Gaara?" Gohan asked finally. Sakura had a feeling that he was talking to try and alleviate some of the worry.

Son Gohan was fiercely protective of his friends. He'd proven that by throwing himself headlong at Orochimaru not once but four different times. How much harder would he fight for family? "Your Dad's a Super Saiyan like you, right? And Gaara's the host for the Shukaku, a Tailed Beast. The list should be narrow."

"I can think of a few people," Gohan admitted. He rubbed hard at his hair. "Argh! I _hate_ this! I hate not knowing what's going on!" Sakura could practically feel his frustration herself, as if it was her father out there unconscious or worse. She didn't imagine she would take it any better than he was right then.

* * *

><p>At some point, Sakura laid her head on Gohan's shoulder and drifted off to sleep, unable to stay awake any longer. When morning came, she found herself covered by a blanket. She sat up, looking around, startled at not finding herself in her room. She wondered, for a brief second, where she was, then remembered the night before.<p>

"Morning," a voice croaked from behind her. She looked and saw Gohan sitting at the table, a bowl of cereal in front of him. Sakura had flatly refused to allow Naruto to fill the apartment to bursting with ramen, something that, to Naruto's shock, Gohan had agreed with. He looked like death warmed over. Gohan's eyes were red and had dark circles under them and the cereal had long since gone soggy. His skin looked pallid. He looked, well Sakura had to be honest, like crap.

A knock came at the apartment's door. Gohan went to open it as Naruto stumbled into the kitchen, yawning, in pajamas that ended an inch above his ankles. His fish nightcap looked like it was devouring his head. When the door opened, Kakashi stepped into the room, looking somber.

"We have a problem," Kakashi said without preamble. If he was surprised to see Sakura there, it didn't show on his face.

"Morning to you too," Naruto grumbled.

"What's wrong?" Sakura asked, thinking _what now?_

"Sunagakure's been attacked."

"Is Gaara alright?" Naruto asked instantly, no longer looking drowsy.

"No," Kakashi and Gohan answered together. The jounin looked surprised. "How do you know that?" Kakashi asked.

"Felt it," Gohan answered. "My Dad's there too. He's still alive," he said to Sakura's question before she could ask it. "I was able to feel him out an hour or two ago."

"We received a messenger hawk before dawn," Kakashi added to the three. "It's the fastest bird Suna possesses. Two interlopers whose description fits perfectly with Akatsuki have kidnapped Gaara. Suna ANBU tried to go after them, but they gave the ANBU the slip. We have no idea where they're heading." Kakashi looked at Gohan. "Son Goku and Kankuro, Gaara's brother, are both in critical condition, having been poisoned, presumably by Akatsuki. They have no idea which toxin was used."

"Could be a combination poison," Sakura muttered, thinking out loud. "Makes it harder to mix up an antidote." Kakashi nodded his agreement.

"Team Seven's been retasked. Suna is asking for help bringing back Gaara. We are already slated to go on an extended mission outside the village," he shrugged, "so we're the natural choice to go. The Godaime said something about possibly assigning reinforcements to us when we pick up the trail."

"Don't you mean if?" Sakura asked.

Kakashi didn't answer her question and every person there knew it was a distinct possibility that they might well not find Gaara in time to stop whatever it was that Akatsuki was going to do to him. "Our first step," Kakashi said finally, "is to get to Suna as quick as we can and get Kankuro and Gohan's father back on their feet so they can give us an idea of what happened and where to start." The jounin turned his eyes on Gohan and Sakura. "Gohan, you have a personal stake in this and I know you want to get to your father as fast as you can."

Gohan nodded, concern for his dad and determination shining in his dark eyes.

"Go. Take Sakura and get going. Naruto and I will follow on the ground. It should take us a couple days to get there, going full bore. Naruto, we're not stopping. I hope Jiraiya-sama trained up your stamina."

"Better keep up with me, old man," Naruto retorted, a challenging smirk on his face.

"Good. Let's move!"

The two shinobi bolted out the door, pausing only long enough for Naruto pick up his pack. Gohan went into his own room and swiped up the rucksack he'd picked up during the shopping the other day. He left with Sakura, following her to her house where she ran inside, grabbed her backpack, said goodbye to her parents, then met Gohan on the doorstep.

"Let's get going!" Sakura called as she ran for the village gates. Gohan stepped in close behind her and swept her up in his arms. "Gohan!"

"Hang on," Gohan said simply, crouching low.

"Huh? Hey!" Sakura shouted when she realized what he was planning. "Gohan, wait!" She screamed in shock a little when Gohan's powerful legs punched them into the sky…and they didn't come down. The ground fell down, down, down, until Konoha was fading fast, a small patchwork of building on the ground. Gohan's aura flared up around them, a blue white flame that shone, even against the cobalt sky, then they roared forward with renewed speed.

The wind in Sakura's ears built from a roar to a scream as Gohan went faster and faster, until the ground beneath them became a simple velvety green blur. Sakura couldn't even keep track of where they were going, but Gohan didn't ask which direction Suna was in. He had his Dad's wavering ki locked in and was going for it with as much accuracy as a guided missile.

The fierce winds around them didn't allow Sakura to look ahead of them to see where they were going. So she made the mistake of looking down. At first it wasn't so bad, but when she saw a cloud shoot by _beneath_ them, she buried her face in Gohan's shoulder and decided that while she may care for Gohan deeply and trusted him not to drop her, flying was most certainly _not_ on her list of things to do again.

It was no small distance to Suna and Sakura quickly grew cold at the high altitudes where Gohan was moving. She shivered slightly in the chill and she pressed closer to Gohan. His arms tightened protectively around her.

"Sorry about this, Sakura," he said to her, his voice barely audible over the howling breeze.

"Your Dad and Kankuro's lives hang in the balance," Sakura replied. "I can be cold for a little while if it means saving them." Gohan glanced down long enough to give her a thankful smile, then the world blurred just a little more as the saiyan inched their speed up just a tad higher. Gohan knew he was pushing the envelope with Sakura with him. He could withstand much higher speeds, sure, but he didn't know Sakura's limits and God forbid if he injure her in his mad rush to get to his father.

* * *

><p>Sakura was getting uncomfortable in Gohan's grip. The shock and magic of flying with him had long since worn off and it felt like they'd been zooming over the landscape for hours. She wasn't eager to fidget though, lest she slip and plummet earthward. Gohan could catch her, no problem, but why take the chance? "How much farther?" Sakura said to him, shouting a little over the unrelenting howl.<p>

"Straight ahead!" Came the response.

Sakura turned her face into the tempest and shielded her eyes. On the horizon was a large brown blemish in a desert of yellow that sparkled so brightly it dazzled her eyes. The blotch quickly resolved into the Suna Plateau, the village nestled in the bowl that had been worn out of the center over the decades.

As the two of them passed right over it and Gohan showed no signs of slowing down, Sakura had a sudden, terrifying thought. All this time, she'd been nervous about the flight itself. She hadn't once given thought to the end. After all, all of physics obeyed one concrete rule.

Sakura screamed as Gohan rolled onto his back, clutched her tighter, then suddenly the world was getting a hell of a lot bigger in a hell of a hurry.

What goes up must come down.

Right when Sakura thought they were going to smash headlong into the hard packed sand, Gohan flipped suddenly, so he was pointing feet first, Sakura's stomach rose into her throat as they started to slough off the speed.

CRASH!

The world jarred in one teeth rattling collision, then blackness. They were dead. That had to be it. Gohan had dropped them too hard into the sand and killed them both. That was the only explanation. Sakura was going to kill Gohan when she got to the afterlife and no matter how adorable she might find him, he was a dead man walking…floating…drifting…however it was the dead got around.

"You can open your eyes now, Sakura," an amused voice said.

Sakura cracked one eye. A startled crowd stood around them, gaping at the two new arrivals. A few of the jumpier shinobi had weapons in their hands and the civilians were pointing up and then pointing at them, clearly trying to figure out where the duo had come from.

"I'm telling you, they came from the sky!"

"Yeah, right, and next you're telling me that pigs fly."

"It's true! Remember that other guy from last night? He was flying around and blowing stuff up!"

"Well yeah but he's…"

"What's going on here?"

The new voice shut up all the gawkers and speculators. The man to come forward was a severe looking jounin with a veil that covered one half of his face. The half that was visible was stern, with keen dark eyes that took in everything, looking for threats, his mouth set into a grim line. He found them quickly enough, in the center of the ring of humanity. "Who are you?" he demanded roughly. Sakura almost gave him a sarcastic retort when she saw the bags under his eyes, only slightly more visible than the ones under Gohan's.

"I'm Haruno Sakura, a chuunin from Konohagakure." She pointed to the hitai-ate on her head as proof. As usual, Sakura was wearing her hitai-ate higher up than most shinobi wore theirs, mostly in attempt to make it look cute at first. It had since become habit. She gestured to Gohan. "He's…"

"Son Gohan," Baki breathed, a look of relief coming over him. "Thank God you two are here. We've been expecting you." He shot a glance to the crowd. "Break it up," he commanded sharply. "There's nothing more here to see!"

"Are they here to bring back the Kazekage?" A voice asked.

"We're going to give it our best shot," Gohan said earnestly. The crowd, seemingly bolstered by Gohan's answer, began to disperse and soon left Baki alone with Sakura and Gohan in the middle of a busy street.

"This way," Baki said, gesturing. He led the two of through the hustle and bustle of Suna, towards a building marked with a huge red cross set in the middle of a white circle. A hospital.

Gohan touched Sakura's elbow. "Chuunin?" he whispered in her ear.

She gave him a coy smile and a wink as a reply. "Surprised?"

Gohan laughed for the first time in what seemed like forever. "No, I guess not."

Baki led them to a ward in the hospital that was quieter than the rest. The nurses and doctors here were walking around with soft footsteps, almost mincing them. Every face was somber, every voice hushed. What little conversation that was going on was about business and not casual conversation. Every eye took in Gohan's gi and the eyes only grew more somber. The reason was Goku, Gohan knew, deep in his gut. His father's chances weren't good.

The intensive care room that Goku and Kankuro occupied would be a rather nice place under different circumstances. Windows lined one wall, showing off a very impressive view of Suna. The colors were all light browns and soft tans, soothing tones that were probably meant to calm the minds of the stricken. The two beds in the room, however, were lost in a knot of white lab coats and pastel scrubs. Sakura was about to tell Gohan that maybe he should wait outside, but she wasn't fast enough.

"Dad!" Gohan called, brushing by her and elbowing his way through the knot of doctors. They protested for a few moments, but then they realized that the young man shoving at them was the son of the dying man in the bed. Gohan made it to his father's bedside and recoiled.

Goku looked like hell.

The Saiyan's flesh was red and inflamed with fever, lips and fingernail beds discolored, an IV snaking out of one arm. His torso, devoid of tunic and gi, was swathed in white gauze, the cloth soaked with perspiration. Goku's breathing was ragged, face screwed up with pain, as if each breath was costing him more and more effort. He was pale, skin sallow, and he seemed less substantial, thinner, as if the mere endeavor of living was eating away at his weight.

"Dad," Gohan whispered, anguish in his face and voice. The room swam, like he was underwater. Gohan wiped furiously at his eyes, refusing to cry, even though he wanted to. Crying wasn't going to bring Goku back right then.

"You're his son?"

The speaker was an old woman, liver spotted, hunched with age, her iron gray hair done up into a bun on the top of her head, a red headband wrapping around her forehead. Her eyes, while tired and world-weary, were nonetheless sharp and observant.

"That would be why I'm calling him Dad," Gohan snapped, the reply coming out much rougher and angrier than he'd intended. "My name's Son Gohan."

"The one who defeated the Kazekage three years ago," the old woman replied. "You've become quite the legend in Suna because of that feat."

"That doesn't matter," Gohan answered brusquely. His tone eased but only just. "What happened to him? How'd he get like this? Who was responsible?"

"Akatsuki poisoned him," the woman said by way of explanation. "It's attacking his nervous and muscular systems, paralyzing him. His body's trying to fight off the infection, but it's overworking itself. He has seventy-two hours at the most, less now. We've used up seven or eight of them."

"Chiyo," one of the doctors said quietly, showing her a chart. The woman's eyes scanned it and she shook her head. "The latest antidote didn't work."

"That's the sixth combination we've tried," one of the other doctors added. "We're running out of options."

"There may be no hope," Chiyo said seriously. "It may be that the best thing for us to do is to make their final hours as comfortable as we can."

"So you're just going to give up on him?" Gohan demanded furiously. Something about seeing his father like this was bringing back bad memories, memories of when Goku had almost been laid low by a heart virus. Gohan had lost his father twice before. To have it happen again,_ now_ of all times, that was…Gohan stopped himself from thinking about it.

"Gohan," Sakura said from beside him. She pulled him back by the elbow, her touch soft, tender, but unbreakable. She hugged him, rubbing his back soothingly. "It'll be okay. I promise. I'll help him."

"I know you will," Gohan said. His anger and shock at seeing Goku like this was subsiding, replaced now by a leaden dread that his father could die in that hospital bed. His dad hated hospitals. If Son Goku died in battle, going out with a bang defending the planet and his loved ones, Gohan could live with that. It would hurt like hell, emotionally, but he could accept it. If Goku died in a hospital bed, that was reprehensible. "Please Sakura. Do something."

"I will." They pulled apart. Sakura tugged her hair into a short ponytail, stepping up to the bedside as she did.

"This is no place for playing pretend, girl," Chiyo said gruffly. "Let the professionals work."

Sakura gave the old woman a steady look. "I'm a medic," she said shortly. "Trained by Tsunade herself. Why don't you zip it and let me work." The doctors all exchanged awestruck glances.

"Tsunade?"

"_The_ Tsunade? The Slug Princess?"

"Maybe she can do it!"

"If anyone could figure out this poison, it would be Tsunade or someone trained by her." Gohan tuned the babble out and slumped down into the chair beside the bed, his eyes never leaving Goku's face, his knee bouncing restlessly.

He wasn't going to be moving any time soon. On the other side of the room, Baki was doing something similar to Kankuro, the visible side of his face concerned and contracted with worry, the other bed surrounded by its own knot of doctors.

* * *

><p>In another country, hundreds of miles from Suna, the third person through the gateway lay in a bed that was far too small for his towering frame. Piccolo's first perception of the world was the splitting headache that throbbed between his dark, intense eyes. He groaned before he could stop himself, one hand going to his temple in a futile gesture to ease the pain.<p>

He tried to sit up, but the spike driving into his head grew to twice its previous size and he stopped trying. Piccolo lay there for a time or two, how long, he couldn't say, but eventually the resilient namek's stubborn will overrode it and forced the pain away.

Piccolo sat up, stood then swooned, going down on one knee. Again he rallied and stood upright. He was in a small room, a house actually. The place was downright tiny, all one room, kitchen and dining room along one wall, a bathroom defined only by the curtains that allowed for some privacy on the other. Two small beds separated by a ramshackle bookshelf were wedged tightly into a back corner and it was here the Piccolo found himself standing, having to duck his head to keep from scraping his scalp on the ceiling.

He threw back the door, which swung drunkenly on its hinges and squealed like a graveyard full of restless shades. Outside, the sun shown down on a village that was just as run down and dreary as the hovel he'd just woken up in

Piccolo realized that he'd been transported to the world Gohan had spoken of after being returned by Shenlong two or three years ago. He tried to guess where he was, but had no luck. It clearly wasn't Konohagakure. Gohan's description of the place didn't match the décor and Piccolo was sure that a village full of deadly ninja wouldn't be as downtrodden as these poor souls clearly were. All were dressed in rough-spun clothing and wandered restlessly. Piccolo stood out, not from being a Namek, standing well over seven feet tall with green skin and pointed ears, but from holding himself erect, from having spark of self-assurance and respect.

_And from being clean_, he noted, his nose wrinkling ever so slightly.

"Wow!"

A little boy, not much more than nine or ten, came running up to Piccolo. Despite the kid's filthy face and homespun clothes, he was bright and untroubled by the squalor that he lived in. He had bright clear eyes and a grin that could give Goku a run for his money. His tousled black hair went ever which way but straight. He had a vigor to him that adults clearly lacked and he was just as clearly alone. Piccolo couldn't see any other kids in the area. Some sullen looking older teens that might have been anything between nineteen and twenty-five lurked nearby but that was it.

"You're awake! My Gramps didn't think you would live! You were out cold and barely breathing and all cut up and stuff by I brought you home anyway and Gramps said that you'd die but you didn't and now you're awake! I'm Shuu! What's your name and why are you green?"

The boy was talking a mile a minute and Piccolo had a hard time understanding what he was saying. Piccolo didn't answer, instead surveying the town again, nestled in the middle of a forest, butted up against a mountain on one side. A straggling line of grungy-looking men filtered from the direction of the mountain. Miners probably.

The kid started pestering Piccolo again, but before Piccolo could even think of an answer, a hard-bitten voice cut across the tiny square that the huts sat around. "Shuu! What are you doing, boy?" An old man, thick of beard, thin of hair, and advanced of age, came stumping towards them. "I told you to get the water, not sit around jaw-jackin'! Now get a move on!"

The boy laughed despite the talking to and dashed off around the house, emerging only a short time later with a pair of buckets hung on a wood pole. He dashed off into the trees, making such a racket that birds flew up in irritation. "That boy," the old man, Shuu's grandfather probably, fumed. "Kid doesn't keep his mind on his chores." He ambled up to Piccolo and gave the Namekian an apprising glare before saying, gruffly, "So you lived."

"It'll take more than a little fall to kill me," Piccolo replied, matching gruff for gruff and glare for glare. After the downtrodden looks of the other adults, the warrior found this old firebrand to be a welcome change, rudeness and all.

The old man spat. "Little fall he says." He pointed up to top of the mountaintop. The peak was naught but rubble and suddenly the splitting headache Piccolo had made a little more sense. "Took the peak right off with your hard head. Shuu thought he'd keep you. 'Let him die quick' I says to him. Woulda been a kinder fate for you."

Piccolo only arched an eyebrow.

"You won't last more than a month here," the old man said with finality.

Piccolo's eyebrow remained arched and he let out a skeptical huff.

That got the old man's ire up. "Fine don't believe me. You'll get yours when them damn shinobi come for you!"

"Shinobi."

"Yeah, them monsters. Congratulations kid! You landed yourself in the middle of the worst country in the world. Them shinobi don't like people with any kind of confidence to 'em and you practically smell of it. They'll kill you quick. Or if you're really unlucky, drag you off to that damn village of theirs. You look like one of their freak experiments."

The old man spat again, more out of habit now than out of any kind of malice, and stumped over to a log pile stacked to one side of his door, the very hovel that Piccolo had woken up in. He sat down and began grumbling to himself in a way that even Piccolo had a hard time hearing, even with his sensitive ears.

Piccolo's answer was to sit down on the ground on the other side of the door and begin meditating. He would find Gohan and Goku eventually, he knew. They didn't need his help either. Both of them were perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. Piccolo knew he would have to move carefully in the world of shinobi. Gohan had almost lost an arm because of these shinobi. It wouldn't do to make a careless move in this war.

So Piccolo would watch, wait, and observe. Only when he was sure that he could survive would he begin moving.

It was the afternoon that Gohan and Sakura landed in Sunagakure to ready themselves for one of their toughest battles and it was also the afternoon that put Piccolo on course for one of his own.

* * *

><p>Okay, I'm finally back. Work's been keeping me away from the computer recently. Liquid water had more solidity to it than my schedule. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter. Oh yeah, before I forget, the first half of the chapter, at Gohan and Naruto's place, is the events in Konoha leading up to the GokuGaara vs Akatsuki fight from the last chapter. The scene with Piccolo is the day after, several hours after Gohan and Sakura arrive in Suna. There was some confusion last chapter as to why Gohan hadn't sensed his father's battle. This is the reason.

~WingedFreedom622


	7. Running Wild

Disclaimer: The usual one

* * *

><p>Gohan snapped awake and sat bolt upright. The world was dark around him and the normally hot and dry desert air was now cold and dry desert air. He'd fallen asleep without realizing it. He had been in Sunagakure for close to two days now and had hardly slept at all, had hardly eaten…<p>

As if to remind him of that fact, his stomach let off a rumble like thunder.

For once it was ignored.

He was in the waiting room of the Suna hospital, where he'd taken up practically permanent residence after seeing his father. He would have started sleeping in the same room, but Sakura had almost physically thrown him from the room.

"Gohan, you're getting in my way!" She'd snapped when she'd had to shove him aside for the umpteenth time. "Get out and do something or I'm going to make you!" Gohan, having learned long ago never to risk a nurse's fury, had left meekly and quietly. He stood and wandered up the stairs to his father's floor and found himself standing outside Goku and Kankuro's room.

Light still spilled from the other side of the door, so he cracked it open cautiously. The interior was still a hive of activity. Gohan couldn't see much from his vantage point, only Goku's sheet-covered legs and feet and the doctors surrounding him and, further back, Kankuro.

"The waiting is the worst part."

Gohan whirled. Baki stood behind him. When the jounin had come up behind him Gohan didn't know, but he'd done so stealthily that Gohan hadn't had even an inkling that he was there. "Baki," Gohan murmured. They were talking in hushed tones so as not to disturb the medical types inside.

"I lost a lot of friends in the war," Baki went on, looking much less frosty than he usually did. He looked surprisingly gentle without the constant iron expression he wore. "Can't tell you how many times I've stood here and wondered if they were going to die."

"It's worse when it's a family member," Gohan replied.

"It is," Baki agreed. "Kankuro may not be my kid but all of them, Gaara, Temari, Kankuro, they as good as are. They've got no one but each other, even before their dad died. And now two of them are in danger. Kankuro may die before the week is out and Gaara's been captured by Akatsuki."

"How did that happen, anyway?" Gohan asked, voicing something that had been on his mind ever since he'd known that the Kazekage had fallen. "Gaara's strong. I know that from experience and my Dad's one of the strongest warriors alive. How were they taken down by two other guys?"

"Your father was doing well by all accounts," Baki replied. "He had Deidara, one of the Akatsuki, on the defensive and there was nothing that Deidara could do to stop him. He was attacked from behind, while his attention was elsewhere. Unfortunately, Akasuna no Sasori has always been fond of his blades and poisons."

"And Gaara?"

"Gaara and Kankuro were facing Sasori on top of the plateau. No one saw what transpired, before or after their defeat. The only one who knows for sure is Kankuro and he's in no shape to be answering questions."

"I wish I could _do_ something," Gohan fumed, clenching his fists until Baki could hear flesh creaking.

"Don't you know where they went?" Baki asked. "I was under the impression that you could sense presences, like a sensory ninja."

"They're hiding their presences. Most shinobi do it as a reflex I've noticed."

"Paranoia keeps a man healthy, wealthy, and alive," Baki said with a nod. "A perimeter guard reported in. Your friends will be here in the morning. The team is escorting them in. Temari is with them as well. Thought you would want to know."

Gohan nodded and the jounin walked off. Gohan returned his attention to the door and threw the thought of Sakura's wrath to the winds and opened the door. Sakura, it seemed, had succumbed the lure of sleep as well. She was sprawled in a chair in a position that only the most charitable of souls would describe as comfortable.

Sure enough, she winced when Gohan shook her awake.

"Gohan?" she asked, blinking sleep from her eyes. She bit back a yawn and failed miserably. "What time is it?"

"Almost two in the morning," he answered. "Baki just came to see me. Naruto and Kakashi will be here in a few hours." Sakura was busy yawning again and could only nod. Gohan turned his attention to his father. Goku's condition, at least to Gohan's untrained eyes, looked unchanged. "Any luck?" he asked, dreading the answer, watching somberly as the doctors worked to keep Goku alive.

"Closer than I was a few days ago," Sakura replied, standing and stretching. "Your dad's made of some tough stuff. He's hanging on a lot better than Kankuro is at least."

"Sakura," Gohan said, turning to her. "I want a straight answer, no doctor bullshit." Sakura blinked at Gohan's swearing. It was something the normally soft-spoken young man did only in combat. "What are their chances?"

"Kankuro is fifty-fifty," Sakura replied wearily. "He's been getting most of the attention because he's worse off than your father. Goku, on the other hand, is probably closer to sixty-forty."

"Not much better."

"Ten percent makes the difference," Sakura countered. "That was something Tsunade-shishou hammered into me from day one. 'One percent makes all the difference in the world' she said." She stepped up to Goku's side and relieved a medic. The relieved doctor stumbled over to the chair Sakura had vacated and was dead to the world before he'd even touched the chair. Sakura continued to talk to Gohan as she worked. "We've managed to extract most of the poison from their systems. The real problem is what's left. That's what's killing them and it's already in their cells and organs where we can't get to it."

"What about an antidote?"

"Chiyo, the old lady we met when we got here, is working on it. She's one of Suna's best healers. I sent a messenger hawk to Tsunade-shishou asking for her advice a few hours into the first day. I still haven't heard back from her. We're working on it, Gohan. That's the best promise I can give you."

Gohan had to force himself out the door so he didn't start hovering again.

* * *

><p>"Mr. Piccolo! Hey!"<p>

The Namekian in question felt his concentration break and fall away. He suppressed a flash of annoyance. Shuu had come to visit yet again. It wasn't so much that Piccolo minded the kid and his constant chatter. It was actually one of the better things about the nameless village he currently found himself in. Shuu could work on his timing though. He always seemed to interrupt right in the middle of Piccolo's meditations, right when he was getting in touch with the flow of his ki and that of the world around him.

It was this constant interruption that had prompted Piccolo to tell the kid his name, but it had only increased the kid's voracious appetite for knowledge about the unusual visitor to the usually sleepy town. Usually Shuu's grandfather, Shunsui, would pick that time to yell at his grandson to get on with some chore or other. Most of the villagers, men and women both, worked in the mine. Those left in town were either too old to work, in the case of Shunsui, or to young, in the case of Shuu. That didn't mean Shuu was free to do whatever he pleased. He spent most of his days running around, tending to this elder or that elder, and helping with chores, cleaning, and other menial tasks.

Shunsui was something of an apothecary and could frequently be seen stumping around the village, cursing and muttering under his breath. To Piccolo, he was frigidly impolite at best and downright caustic at worst. The rest of the villagers gave the Namekian a wide berth. Maybe it was his demonic appearance or perhaps it was the corded muscles that rippled under Piccolo's green skin. Or maybe, and this was just an educated guess on Piccolo's part, it was the glare he fixed on every person who came too close.

Only Shuu ignored it. Shunsui just didn't care.

"Mr. Piccolo! I brought you some dinner!" Shuu set the plate with the food down. It wasn't exactly a noble's feast. The meal was water, some rough wheat bread, a few limp turnips, and some meat, probably a wild rabbit or some other game that someone had gotten lucky with. Maybe even Shuu.

"So what are you doing, Mr. Piccolo?" Shuu asked. That was only the first of a whole plethora of questions that Piccolo couldn't even begin to answer fast enough to keep up with the kid. He was a bundle of energy and it was a wonder that Shunsui could even keep track of the kid, much less get him to do any kind of task for any length of time.

"Shuu! Dammit boy, you've got chores to do and they don't include talking to the freak! Now get moving!"

"Okay Gramps!" Shuu laughed and scampered away. "Talk to you later, Mr. Piccolo!" The kid's name for Piccolo sent him back to another time, with another young kid who called him Mr. Piccolo. It brought a small smile to Piccolo's face.

"Gods be damned, he can smile!" Shunsui fumed coming over. "You think it's funny that them shinobi are going to come and kill you? Huh?"

"I'm hard to kill," Piccolo replied. This was pretty much his dialogue with Shunsui. Shunsui would say that the ninja would come to kill him and Piccolo would reply by saying that he was a tough one to kill.

"Get out of here, demon-man," Shunsui spat. "You're not welcome, you're not wanted, you're just going to be trouble. Now go on! Get!" He scooped up a rock and pitched it at Piccolo, the throw conspicuously underhand and with no real power. This too was part of Shunsui's attitude for Piccolo. He threatened, he blustered, he raged and he ranted, but all the while, he never made good on his threats and never remembered the bluster.

The rock landed a good three feet short of Piccolo and the old man stomped away, again muttering caustic remarks about anything that caught his fancy. Piccolo shook his head, ducking his chin to hide his smirk behind the high collar of his weighted training cloak.

Quiet fell over the village until evening when the miners returned to their homes. After that, the village came alive with the noise of people enjoying the little free time they had in between bouts in the mine. It wasn't long before Piccolo noticed that something was amiss. Shuu had gone into the forest several hours before to gather food.

Piccolo didn't remember the kid returning.

Most telling was the noticeable upswing in the ire of Shunsui. The old man was raising all kinds of hell, yelling at people for laughing to loudly, at a pair of the older teens who thought they were hidden in the shadows as they made out, and generally being a grumpy old man. The change was that this time his rage was real, his ire raised by the concern for his grandson.

"You! You damn demon-man! This is your fault! You brought this on him! Shuu is a good boy but he's too damn interested in you! Things were better before you showed up. I told you before that you're nothing but trouble! Get out! Go!" The tirade drew Piccolo hostile stares. The Namekian didn't do anything aside from shift his seat in the dirt a bit so he could shoot to his feet in a hurry.

Angry murmurs began to reach his ears and a mob began to form. They picked up old farming tools, they had no weapons, and Shunsui himself scooped up a rock and hurled it at Piccolo's face. The old codger's aim was impeccable this time and it would have hurt had Piccolo's hand not shot up at the last second and snatched the rock from the air.

The growing mob froze. Piccolo held out the hand with the rock, making eye contact with every villager, Shunsui included, until they avoided his gaze.

Piccolo crushed the rock like it was made of powder. The message was clear.

_This could be you._

Then he stood up, shrugged once or twice to make sure the cape sat on his shoulders better, then walked towards the dimness of the surrounding woods. "Where the hell do you think you're going?" Shunsui shouted.

Piccolo didn't look back. "To find your grandson," he replied simply, then vanished into the trees.

* * *

><p>"Pulse is dropping!"<p>

"Blood pressure's falling fast!"

"Here's the antidote!"

"Give it to me, nownowNOW!"

Gohan burst into medical ward just in time to see Sakura plunge a needle filled with a greenish fluid into Kankuro's arm. The young Suna-nin was thrashing on his bed, the first movement that Gohan had seen from him since they'd arrived. Gaara's brother writhed and thrashed, screaming in a tone so anguished that Gohan felt empathic pain just from watching.

Doctors were screaming orders at nurses.

The heart monitor was beeping like crazy, an unnecessary alarm.

The plunger slid down the needle. Kankuro continued to thrash and scream for a moment or two more, then the antidote began to take effect and he subsided, sinking slowly onto his mattress, breath fogging the respirator that had been placed over his face. Sakura's hands glowed with soft healing light as she passed them up and down the incapacitated ninja.

Sweat was running down her face and she only wiped it away when she sat back with huff, sinking straight down to the floor. Gohan was by her side seconds later, offering a hand to help her up, which she took gratefully.

"What was that about?" Gohan asked.

"We almost lost him," Sakura wheezed. "I only just got done making the newest antidote when he started flaring up. Looks like the weaker the host is, the more potent the poison gets. It's a real nasty piece of work." She leaned on Gohan as she stumbled to the chair next to Goku's bed and sank down into it. She produced a second syringe and plunged it into Goku's arm. Goku inhaled sharply, his entire body clenching for a heart-pounding moment, then he relaxed, sighing heavily, as if setting down a heavy burden. His breath became less labored and color returned to his skin even as Gohan watched.

Gohan's knees went weak with relief. His butt hit the floor about the same time that Naruto, Kakashi, and Temari, who the other two had encountered on their way to Suna and informed of the situation, burst into the room. All three were winded and Naruto bent right over, wheezing.

"Kankuro!" Temari choked out, rushing to her brother's side. "You idiot!" she berated the unconscious boy. "You're always getting in over your head, you moron! Now look at yourself!" She launched into a rant that was fueled more by nerves than by any real anger and, predictably, it ended with Temari leaving the room to recover her poise and so the others wouldn't see the proud woman's tears.

The doctors began filing out one at a time, each one stopping to congratulate Sakura on her success. Her latest antidote had been nothing short of a WAG, a wild-ass guess. To everyone's surprise it _worked_!

Gohan struggled upright and caught Sakura up in a fierce embrace.

"Thank you, Sakura," he whispered in her ear. Sakura returned the hug.

"Anytime, Gohan." She turned to Kakashi and Naruto. "About time you got here," she said to her blond teammate. "I was beginning to think that you and Kakashi-sensei had gotten lost."

"Not for lack of trying, Sakura," Kakashi replied easily, smiling at her. His dark eye played over Goku and Kankuro. "I see that you managed to save Kankuro and Gohan's father."

"I got lucky," Sakura replied.

"Sometimes that's all you need," the jounin said. He was about to say more when Goku opened his eyes.

"Dad!" Gohan was at his father's side in a moment. "Dad, are you okay?"

"Gohan?" Goku wheezed, his voice weak. "When did you get here?" The mighty Saiyan struggled to sit up.

"Woah, easy!" Sakura yelped, pushing Gohan's father back down with a firm but gentle hand. "The antidote's cleaning out your system but until it's gone you're going to have a fever and shouldn't be moving much."

"What happened?" Goku asked.

"Akatsuki happened," Baki said, coming into the room. The jounin was moving with an animation that no one had seen in the dour man ever since this whole fiasco had started. "I heard from Temari that both Son Goku and Kankuro have been cured."

"They're not out of the woods yet," Sakura replied, "but I don't think we'll have to worry about them dying in their sleep now." She waved a hand at Goku. "Him least of all. It's a miracle he's even conscious right now, much less trying to sit up."

"I'm…stubborn like that," Goku muttered, drawing a laugh from Gohan. Sakura had to smile.

"I'm sorry to be so abrupt," Baki went on, not sounding very apologetic, "but do you remember anything about the battle, Goku-san?"

"Hey!" Sakura protested, "He's in no condition to be answering questions!"

"Baki's right, Sakura," Kakashi interrupted before she could go further into patient protection mode. "This is something that can't wait for their recovery to stabilize. Gaara's in trouble. He might even be dead already. We need any hint we can get."

"Sasori…"

Every eye in the room fixed on Kankuro, who was awake and watching them through pain-hazed eyes. "What are you two made out of?" Sakura wondered in surprise.

"Kankuro," Baki said gently. "How were you and Gaara defeated?"

The puppet user seemed to be having a hard time comprehending. He focused on nothing for a long silent moment before zeroing in on Baki again. "Aka…higi."

"Akahigi," Kakashi repeated softly. He glanced at Baki. "Mean anything to you?"

Baki nodded. "Sasori's puppet techniques. It's said that he used it once to conquer an entire country by himself."

"That's bull," Naruto laughed. "No one can take down an entire country by themselves!"

"Dad and I can each take out a planet," Gohan replied, frowning at Baki. "It's not like it's unbelievable."

"Fine," Naruto fumed. "Steal my fun."

"So this Sasori," Sakura broke in before Naruto could start arguing. "How dangerous is he? Really?"

"You have no idea, little girl."

Everyone turned. The speaker was Chiyo, the old lady who had insulted Sakura when she and Gohan had first arrived. The healer had been in and out the last few days, gathering ingredients for the antidote, helping out Sakura when she needed a rest, and generally being an able, if crotchety, assistant.

"Chiyo is Sasori's grandmother," Baki explained.

"You forget I practically raised him," Chiyo grumped. She was about to say more, but then she caught sight of Kakashi. "_You!_"

"Um," Kakashi said, unsure of how to react to the sudden hostility from an old lady. He settled for raising a cautious hand in greeting. "Hi?"

"Die you White Fang bastard!"

Chiyo charged, kunai in hand.

* * *

><p>Shuu sprinted through the forest, feet pounding the ground hard enough to hurt, his breath catching in his throat. He was gasping for air, crying, and screaming all at the same time. And for good reason. He had a pack of ravenous wolves on his heels, almost literally.<p>

It had been innocent enough. All he had been doing was gathering food for dinner when the wolves had come out of the shadows, with raised hackles and bared teeth. The entire pack had a scrawny, malnourished look about them, their normally well-muscled frames not much more than skin and bones now, tan and black coats matted with dirt and clumps.

Shuu had taken one look at them before running off.

Needless to say, they'd given chase.

Shuu stumbled and went down.

The lead wolf came at him, ivory teeth slavering in the light. "NOOOOOO!" Shuu screamed. He closed his eyes.

A wolf screamed in pain and Shuu heard it bouncing across the ground. Had it missed? He cracked an eye and found himself staring at the flapping fringe of a heavy-looking white cape. Shuu followed the cape up to the broad shoulders they sat on, and up from there up to the green-colored bull neck and pointed ears of someone that Shuu had come to think the world of lately.

"Mr. Piccolo!"

The wolves sniffed at the alpha male who had been the unlucky recipient of Piccolo's shin. The warrior's arms remained crossed over his chest. He only spared Shuu a glance to make sure that the kid was okay. A scratch here or there and he was missing a patch of cloth off the back of his trousers where a wolf had gotten a little too close, but other than that, he looked fine.

The pack turned back to Piccolo, throats vibrating with snarls. One snapped and charged. That set the rest off and on they came. Piccolo's legs were the only thing that moved as he kicked the animals around, one after the other, hopping over one and moving out the way of the others where it was required, but he never let them get anywhere near Shuu, who'd backed up against a tree.

In a few vicious seconds, the entire pack, more than six of the starving vicious beasts, lay whimpering at Piccolo's feet and the Namek hadn't even been touched.

"Wow," Shuu whispered in awe.

"You okay kid?" Piccolo asked gruffly. A wolf came to its feet, holding a rear leg off the ground. Its ruff came up. Piccolo _glared_ and the wolf's threats died in its throat. "Beat it," he said simply.

The wolf pack turned and began to slink away, tails between their legs. They would find easier prey elsewhere. "Why are you here?" Shuu asked.

"Looking for you," Piccolo answered. "Your Grandpa's worried. Better get back to the village." Before Shuu could answer, a loud, arrogant voice called,

"Who hurt our dogs?"

Four men came out of the foliage. One was leading the injured wolf by the ear and the canine didn't look thrilled about it. It was thrashing and biting, paws throwing dirt every which way, until it caught sight of Piccolo. Then it started whining and crying, trying to run. "Did you do this?" One demanded of Piccolo.

Piccolo sized up the four men before him. They were dressed far differently from what the villagers were. Instead of rough spun tunics and trousers, these men wore skintight outfits with gray and black camouflage shirts over that. The shirts were long, hanging down to mid-thigh at least, tied off at the waist with leather belts. Each man also wore, somewhere on his person, a small band with a metal plate on it. Piccolo recognized the apparel immediately. Gohan had sported one tied around one arm when he'd come back from this world. The symbol was different though. Gohan's had been one of a stylized leaf.

This one was of a musical note. A different faction then, Piccolo realized.

"Well?" The first man demanded. "Did you do this?"

"What the hell is he?" one of the others muttered. "Did one of Orochimaru-sama's experiments get loose?"

_Orochimaru?_ Piccolo thought, allowing only a small twitch to give away the face that he recognized the name. _The one that gave Gohan all that trouble. _He glanced back at Shuu, who looked terrified out of his mind at the appearance of the men. Piccolo's jaw clenched. _This will be trouble too._

"Who cares? Hey! Freak! Did you hurt our dogs?"

"What's it to you?" Piccolo said.

"Oh ho! We got some spine in this one!" They drew weapons. "Do you know the penalty for resisting the duly appointed shinobi of Rice Country?"

"Mr. Piccolo," Shuu whimpered. "They're ninja! You can't beat ninjas! Grandpa Shunsui says so!" He tugged insistently at Piccolo's cape. "I want to go home!" That got Piccolo's temper up like nothing else. Shuu and Shunsui were a happy pair, Piccolo could see that. Even with all of Shunsui's surliness, which simply stemmed from an overprotective love for the boy. They deserved to live happily. Shuu needed to run around and play tag or something with other kids, not spend his days running around for food and from wolves, his only future being long stints in the mine.

Shuu also reminded Piccolo of Gohan when he was younger. Piccolo was very protective of Gohan, similar to the way Shunsui protected Shuu. Piccolo hated playing the hero, but if he didn't fight back, these men would kill him and probably either kill Shuu or torture him to make an example to the villagers of what the price of defiance was.

Of that Piccolo was certain. He had been evil once himself after all. It was what the old Piccolo would do. Had done. And would still be doing if Raditz and the Saiyan threat hadn't forced Piccolo to take on a young, unwanted apprentice.

The ninja grew tired of waiting.

"Kill him!" The leader shouted.

Piccolo's fist crashed into his stomach a heartbeat later, doubling the man over as Piccolo's heel slammed home into the man's skull, flinging him into the trees. A moment passed, then came the sound of a body hitting something hard.

In a flash, the other three had been hit by blows as well and they each hit the dirt or slammed into a tree trunk. The echoes of the first hit had yet to die away when the last man went to the ground.

The men were more resilient than they appeared to be. One remained motionless, but the other two got up, wincing and snarling, much like the wolves they had been using as hunting dogs or whatever the purpose of the pack had been.

"Y-you're a dead man…demon…thing," one gasped, clutching at his side. The threat breathed new life into the injured men. They believed that Piccolo was some kind of amateur, who would crumble at a threat. The man brought his hands together and folded them through a series of unusual signs.

Piccolo knew what this was as well.

"Katon!"

A firm hand clenched down on the shinobi's fingers, twisting painfully. The shinobi yelped as he stared into a pair of dark, angry eyes. "You can't do those techniques if you don't have fingers." Piccolo's elbow slammed the man into the black oblivion of unconsciousness before he could complete the technique. The last man stumbled backwards, eyes wide with fright. "W-what are you?"

Piccolo's fist clenched until his knuckles popped, the muscle in his arm bulged and the veins stood out in stark relief against his green skin. Then he smashed the enemy ninja into total blackness.

"Wow, Mr. Piccolo!" Shuu gushed. "That was amazing! How did you do that, grandpa told me that no one could beat shinobi, can you teach me, are you going to get rid of the ninja?" The kid was talking a mile a minute again, but Piccolo listened half-heartedly.

"Shuu," he said firmly, hauling the kid up by the arm and setting him on his feet, "get back to the village. Hurry."

"Why?" Shuu asked.

"One got away," Piccolo replied tersely. "I'll see if I can track him down. Go!"

Shuu paled as he realized the implications. Shuu was many things, but stupid wasn't one of them and he took off as fast as his legs could carry him. Piccolo turned back to the suddenly-foreboding forest and prepared himself for what was to come.

* * *

><p>Deidara frowned as he felt something in the beak of his clay bird shift. Before he could say something to Sasori about it, sand exploded from the bird's mouth, spilling out everywhere, as if the bird was drooling. In another moment, the pressure became too much and the bird's head exploded, dropping clay, Deidara, Sasori, and Gaara to the ground. Both Akatsuki managed to make soft landings of the sudden plummet.<p>

Below them, the very earth dissolved into a swirling whirlpool of sand that shot up and caught Gaara. The Kazekage was lowered softly to the earth.

"He's awake, Sasori," Deidara said cheerfully. "And it doesn't look like he's much of a morning person, huh?"

"Must be his demon clearing out the poison in his system faster than we thought."

"Isn't your poison supposed to stop that kind of thing?"

Gaara glared at them with one golden eye with a four pointed star for a pupil. His mouth split open into a drunken, leering grin that let out an equally unnerving giggle slide past his lips. "One little two little three dead shinobi," he sang laughingly.

"It's the Shukaku!"

"Woohoo!" Gaara howled, the sand erupting up as a massive geyser. When it died down, a massive sand raccoon, veined with purple lines had replaced the Kazekage. "When the brat's away the demon will play! I have to hand it to you bastards you know," the demon said. "You really gave my brat a time of it."

"How did you get loose," Sasori growled. "The Kazekage never let you out."

Shukaku laughed. "And that's where you're wrong, puppet man! The brat managed to use that forced sleep thing of his right before you hit him!"

* * *

><p><em>Gaara skidded across the plateau. Right as the edge shot by beneath him, he lashed out with one chakra-enhanced hand and allowed his momentum to sling him back onto the rocky wall. He glanced over at Kankuro, who was down for the count it seemed, poisoned by some weird concoction that Sasori had whipped up.<em>

"_Impressive," Sasori said, sitting astride Hiruko. "You're lasting longer than most in the face of my Akahigi."_

_Surrounding Gaara were what seemed like hundreds of puppets, each one clattering and clacking. Gaara didn't know how the puppet master was controlling so many. Kankuro had once said that the max for any puppet user was ten, one for each finger. There were rumors of a master who used his toes as well, but that was an old urban legend in Suna._

_Gaara waved his arms and shattered another few puppets with lashing tentacles of sand, but it was too few too late as they all surged forward as once. In response Gaara brought his fingers together into a jutsu he hated right as he was stabbed several different times from all directions._

_Leaden heaviness and crippling pain washed through the Kazekage but as he slipped into blackness, he felt the jutsu finish. "Tanuki Neiri," he whispered before his eyes closed. Just as the world went away, he heard the _thing_ inside him let out a gleeful whoop._

"Time to raise hell!" _It cheered._

* * *

><p>"And now here I am," The demon finished.<p>

"It's been three days," Sasori said. "Why wait until now?"

"Well first," the demon answered, "I had to deal with that damn poison you put in me. That took awhile. Then I thought I could get away if I just played dead, but apparently you want my brat really freaking bad for some reason. And besides that, I'm _bored_! What good is it being allowed to run wild if I can't, you know, _RUN WILD!_" It leered at them. "So dance little men!" Its belly distended horribly. "Fuuton! Renkuudan!"

One massive claw hammered into its bloated belly. Shukaku exhaled a giant blast of wind at the two missing-nin.

* * *

><p>I figured I had better get this out before Dawnguard comes out tomorrow for Skyrim otherwise it'll never get done.<p>

**Glossary**

**Tanuki Neiri (Forced Sleep): **Forces Gaara to go to sleep, allowing the Shukaku to take full control of his body. Also tends to result in Shukaku going a little...overboard.

**Fuuton Renkuudan (Wind Release: Drilling Air Bullet): **I think the name says it all. It's kind of like the Rasengan actually.

**Akahigi (Red Secret Art): **Sasori's puppet jutsu techniques.


	8. Piccolo vs Orochimaru

Disclaimer: Own nothing, as always

* * *

><p>It was dawn when Piccolo finally made it back to the village. He'd spent all night trying to track down the shinobi who'd shown more brains than his companions and chosen to exercise the 'flight' part of flight or fight. The real question was what would happen now? Piccolo's instincts told him that Orochimaru would be coming. Something like this couldn't be ignored. Defiance in the face of his authority? It could never stand! Orochimaru couldn't care less what happened to his enforcers and various sundry minions. It was the principle of the thing that mattered. Someone hadn't bowed down. Someone had stood up. Someone had fought. That had to be addressed and the best way to do it would be to visit that offenders personally and crush them to dust as a message.<p>

The whole village, almost a hundred men, women, children, and elders, were gathered at the borders of their squalid dwellings, waiting for the news. They reminded Piccolo of a family of rabbits who knew that the wolves and hawks were about. When his cape had rustled over some brush and made a slithering noise, the entire village looked ready to scamper. One or two at the very back _did_ scamper.

When Piccolo emerged, they didn't look any less tense. Shuunsui and Shuu were right at the front of the crowd, the boy huddled against his wizened grandfather.

"Well?" The old man asked, for once not hostile. He looked serious and alert. Piccolo felt his interest stir. Had the old man been a ninja himself in his youth? Or another kind of warrior? He shook it off. It didn't matter now.

"Lost him," Piccolo grunted. Despaired cries broke out all around him. They knew the consequences of rebellion and what was coming better than Piccolo did and, as the Namekian's eyes fell on Shuu, who was crying silent tears, something awoke within him. Piccolo didn't know why he wanted to protect this kid so badly. He chalked it up to nostalgia. The kid had the same innocence and vitality that Gohan had had when he was that age. Maybe Piccolo just wanted to fight. Maybe he just wanted to test himself against what this new world had to offer.

"We're dead!" Someone it the crowd shouted.

"No." Piccolo said. He didn't raise his voice, but the firmness and sheer _steel_ in his voice made all the dissenters fall silent. "No one is dying here. When Orochimaru gets here, I'll take him on."

"You sure, demon man?" Shuunsui asked, looking up at Piccolo with appraisal.

"Orochimaru's a step above those punks you dealt with."

"Positive," Piccolo replied, though he was far from it. He knew what shinobi were capable of from listening to Gohan tell stories, but hearing about it and seeing and living it were something entirely different. "Do you have somewhere safe to go?"

"Safest place would be the mine," the old man replied. He was a completely different man from before. Gone was the cantankerous griping. Instead, Shuunsui was doing nothing but cooperating and his dark eyes glinted with a keen intelligence.

"What if he brings the mountain down on us?" Shuu asked.

"Kid's got a point," Piccolo agreed.

Shuunsui shrugged. "We don't have anything else. They'd butcher us in the woods. At least in the mine we can make a fight of it. Barricade the entrance." He turned to the assembled villagers. "Get started everyone." He left no room for argument and put action to words by jerking a pickax out of a miner's hand and stumping off towards the mine.

"What will you do, Mr. Piccolo?" Shuu asked, staring up at him.

"Fight," Piccolo answered simply.

"Will you win?"

Piccolo ruffled the kid's hair without looking at him. "If I don't," he said, "I'm going to make sure Orochimaru is never the same again." Piccolo spun on his heel and strode briskly to the center of the village, where he sat down, folded his arms, and began meditating. He let go of the world around him and vanished into his own head as he steadied his breathing and slipped into a lucid frame of mind where he was only slightly aware of the passage of time.

* * *

><p>It was over almost as soon as it began, or at least it seemed to Piccolo. He snapped out of his trance as a sinister sensation slithered over his sixth sense. It was as if someone had tickled the back of his neck with a live electric wire. His eyes snapped open as four figures advanced up the lane to the village square. Piccolo sized them up as they approached. One man was tall and dressed in all black, completely at odds with the corpse-like paleness of his skin. The man's hair was as black as his outfit and when he caught sight of Piccolo sitting behind the smoldering remains of the campfire in the community fire pit, his mouth split wide, revealing teeth that were more like a shark's than a human's. The others were both young men, one dressed in ratty gray rags that might have been white at one point and looked distinctly malnourished. The second had black hair and eyes that matched. His mouth twisted into a wondering frown when he saw Piccolo. The final man was the ninja who had escaped.<p>

Piccolo glanced around. The village was deserted and the campfire had burned to cinders. He seemed to remember it roaring at one point. He must have been meditating for the better part of a day, maybe even two, for the fire to get to that point.

"So this is the demon who gave you so much trouble," the tall man in black said. He had to be Orochimaru, Piccolo noted. He matched the descriptions that Gohan had given and the way the shinobi cowered when his master addressed him only cemented that fact for Piccolo. Orochimaru chuckled. "Kukuku. How amusing."

Piccolo didn't reply. Instead he unfolded from his seat in the dirt and stood to his full towering height, glaring at the shinobi. "Leave." Piccolo commanded, putting iron into his tone.

"How rude!" Orochimaru replied, putting a hand over his heart, as if wounded. "And here I came such a long way to visit you! And this is how you welcome me?" He shook a finger at Piccolo. "I must say, I find your manners lacking."

Piccolo scowled, annoyed by the sarcasm, and slid into his stance. A stiff wind picked up and swept through the village, pulling at his heavy cape. It flapped and fluttered with gratifying weight. "Let's skip the rest of the pleasantries and just start trying to kill each other," he said.

"Direct and to the point," Orochimaru chuckled. "I think I like you already. Very well. Let's play a little." He motioned to Kabuto and Sasuke, who took a few steps away in order to give their master a little room to work.

Silence fell.

Piccolo didn't take his attention off Orochimaru for a moment. He knew that this man was nothing to sneeze at. From Gohan's accounts, this snake man was as strong as an Ascended Saiyan. It was going to be an interesting match, that was for certain.

_Maybe once upon a time I wouldn't have stood a chance,_ Piccolo thought, _but that was two years ago. A lot has changed since then._

Orochimaru flickered forward. Piccolo threw himself backwards, pushing off hard enough to shatter stone. The world stretched, movement slowed, the hard lines of everything that wasn't Orochimaru or Piccolo softening in moments. Orochimaru's fist shot in, filling Piccolo's vision. The Namek almost choked in surprise. The bastard was _fast_! Piccolo barely managed to get his arm up in time to stop the blow. The force of it rattled him to his bones and pain erupted all up and down his arm and into his shoulder.

But it wasn't worse than anything else he'd felt in his life.

Piccolo turned the attack aside and retaliated with one of his own, slamming his knuckles into Orochimaru's stomach. It connected solidly and Piccolo's mouth stretched into a fierce grin as he felt the force rip into his opponent's body. Orochimaru's face showed an instant of supreme shock. He'd thought that Piccolo was a backwater rube who'd gotten lucky against the minions. He hadn't expected this, Piccolo knew. He reversed direction, throwing himself forward.

The blows came hard and fast, as fast as Piccolo could hurl them. Each one found a target and there was nothing the snake man could do to stop it. He finished the blitz with a second hard blow to the stomach. Orochimaru doubled over in time to catch Piccolo's toe to the face, snapping him back upright. Piccolo spun to build momentum and planted the same foot right where his fist had gone an instant before.

Orochimaru shot backwards as if from a cannon. The air whistled shrilly with the force of his passage. Piccolo lost sight of his enemy when he vanished into the trees, but Piccolo's sensitive ears could hear the ninja bouncing off trees and boulders, each one producing noises that sounded less like a body hitting something hard and more like artillery shells landing on a battlefield.

Piccolo's follow-up was a blast of ki, released with a yell.

It streaked off after Orochimaru.

There was a moment's delay before it exploded. The shockwave felt like a tremendous feather pillow swung by someone as tall as some of the trees that made up the forest near the village. A cloud of dirt and pelting debris followed heartbeats later.

The entire exchange had taken seconds.

Any normal human would have been killed by any one of Piccolo's blows, but the warrior wasn't fooled. A second eerie calm descended on the village-turned-battlefield as Piccolo waited for his opponent to reappear. Dark eyes kept moving the entire time, scanning up, down, and all around.

"Where'd you go," Piccolo murmured after another moment. His adrenalin was flooding his system, making all the colors stand out in shades ten times more vibrant than normal, the borders of the world as sharp as knives. Instinct screamed at him and he flung himself into the sky, the tops of the trees passing well beneath him in one long bound.

Ki swirled to life in his palms as he clasped them in front of his forehead.

"MASENKO!"

The pillar of gold light hammered down into the spot where Piccolo had been standing a moment before.

KABOOM!

The ki detonated with enough force to make the air against Piccolo's skin shiver with vibrations, like standing next to the bass drummer in a high school band, the light from the explosion blinding the green alien for a moment. Something erupted from within the smoke and hurtled up to his level in a blast of blue-white light.

It was Orochimaru, who looked a little mussed. Small burns and scratches covered his body and the black flack vest he wore had one shoulder burned away completely. Only shreds and scorched fabric were left. Piccolo felt a sense of smug satisfaction when he saw the Sannin's face, which didn't look anywhere near as amused as before.

They stared at each other across the intervening distance for a moment before they collided with a thunderous roar. Piccolo threw every technique he knew and a few new ones besides, his fists moving so fast that they were blurs to even him. Orochimaru's were similarly quick and Piccolo felt more than a few as he took hits on his arms and thighs from the blocks that he threw into the mix after each attack. It went on for seconds but each second seemed an eternity and before long, Piccolo's muscles were burning with the exertion, but to the Namekian it was a warm-up before the real work could begin.

They sprang apart, each one holding a glowing ball of energy. They released at the same time and the ki blasts merged, mixed, and went off with the force of a good-sized bomb. Closer to the impact this time, Piccolo was blown off his feet and sent tumbling. The world turned to a crazy blur as he bounced and rolled in the dirt, white cape flying. He slammed a palm down hard enough to feel it bruise and splinter the ground, flinging himself back to his feet and ended up skidding another few feet.

Ahead of him rose a thick brown smoke plume, which he viewed from the shattered remains of one of the hovels that served as a house in the village. Piccolo blinked when he saw that. He hadn't even felt the impact, hadn't even noticed his surroundings in the wild ride. His cape had gotten wrapped around his neck during the tumble and he took a moment to straighten it.

Orochimaru lanced from the smoke plume, a snarl bubbling from his throat. Piccolo answered and their punches hammered together at the same time. A sharp pain shot up into Piccolo's shoulder and he felt warm blood well up between their knuckles and begin to run down in between their fingers.

The thunderclap from the hit echoed in his ears as they sprang apart again. Instead of diving headlong into the fray again, Orochimaru's fingers flashed through a fast seal sequence before Piccolo could do anything to stop him.

_Here it comes!_ Piccolo thought as he dug in and set his feet for whatever was coming.

"Katon! Endan!"

Orochimaru spewed a giant raging ball of fire straight at Piccolo, who recoiled as it raced for him. The heat was intense, the roar of the flames like sitting next to a jet as it revved up for takeoff. It set the dry grasses alight, made the wooden huts smolder, and made the dirt boil and run into glass.

The world turned a negative image of itself, all the colors inverting, as Piccolo choked down the thrill of adrenalin that hammered through his system like lightning, then threw himself into the evasion, flinging his body to the right, hoping to clear the fireball before it reached him. "Come on," Piccolo snarled as the ball crawled towards him at a pace that looked deceptively slow but closed the distance at a rate left little time for any other action. The heat grew to unbearable levels and Piccolo could feel his skin baking under the intensity, but he cleared it, triumph making his heart pound with the thrill of the near miss. He flung a ki blast at Orochimaru, who was standing stock still, or so it seemed to Piccolo in the weird negative world that came from moving at super fast speeds.

The world snapped back to normal. Orochimaru caught a head-on blast of yellow light before he could do anything to react to it. He screamed in pain, music to Piccolo's pointed ears, and was blasted right off his feet.

Piccolo shot forward in a blur, mouth twisting into a grimace, showing off his pointed fangs. He had to hit Orochimaru while he was down. Couldn't give the bastard a moment to rest. The longer the battle went on, the more risk there was to Shuu and the rest of the villagers, sheltering in the mine. Hell, Piccolo knew that Orochimaru would bring down the whole mountain on them just to rattle the green warrior.

Orochimaru was quick on the recovery, shooting back to his feet in time to catch the thunderous blow that Piccolo unleashed. The Sannin weathered the blow and the ground around them shattered with a tortured scream of breaking rock, the very earth itself unable to withstand the power the two warriors were flinging around.

"You're good," Orochimaru remarked from behind his crossed arms.

Piccolo's reply was sharp and curt, going with bedrock determination that was sitting in his gut. "Shut up and fight," he replied, snapping the top of his foot into Orochimaru's ribs. Something gave with a crack and drew a howl of pain from the ninja before he slammed through two huts, turning them into kindling, and began bouncing along head over heels. He took one final big bounce and slammed hard into a tree, shaking leaves from its boughs. Blood flew from Orochimaru's mouth when he hit and coated the Sannin's chin in a film of scarlet.

The shinobi slumped into the dirt, stunned. Piccolo took the opportunity to try and finish the fight. He brought two fingertips to his forehead and began to pull in his ki. It was like someone had dipped him in a warm bath as he felt his ki begin to move and his fingertips erupted into pins and needles as the electric-like ki began to gather, chittering and chattering with rapid pops.

"Makankosappo!"

Power thundered out from Piccolo's fingers as he leveled them at Orochimaru. The spiral-bound ki blast shot slammed into Orochimaru and drew another sharp cry of pain from him until he gagged and coughed up blood. The beam finished boring though Orochimaru and the tree he was propped up against and shot off into the forest, lighting the undergrowth with yellow light before dimming. The silence that was left behind the shrill scream of the piercing light was almost deafening.

Piccolo turned and faced the three who were left. The ninja who'd started this whole mess quailed when he fell under Piccolo's steely-eyed gaze, much to the Namekian's satisfaction.

"You," Piccolo growled at him. The man yelped and took a few shuddering steps back, quivering. The green alien turned his attention to the other two ninja, who had remained motionless through the whole fight, even at its end. They didn't move, to retreat or otherwise, but Piccolo kept his attention on them as he continued talking to the first man. "When I'm done with these two, I'm going to make you suffer for what you've brought down on these people. Make your peace with whatever god you pray to. You'll be meeting it soon."

"Hmm," the emaciated man said thoughtfully, pushing up scratched and grimy glasses, "I wonder if it will be as easy as you think?"

Piccolo jerked his chin at Orochimaru's corpse. "If you're not as strong as he is, this _will_ be easy," he shot back. "I don't know why Gohan kept saying this guy was stronger than him back then." He flicked his eyes at the body again, and then back to the remaining three shinobi.

"You know Son Gohan?" The younger, dark-haired man said suddenly. He'd been regarding Piccolo with a sort of haughty disdain that had, to Piccolo at least, been somewhat childish looking, much like Vegeta way back when he and Nappa had first come to Earth looking for the Dragonballs. The youth took a step forward, one hand falling to the hilt of the sword that was at his back, tucked into the purple rope belt he wore around his waist.

"Yeah, I know Gohan," Piccolo replied. A sudden flaring of power, like an oily cloth, hit Piccolo's sixth sense and the warrior flung himself forward into a graceful somersault. He kicked his hips around at the top of the tumble and came to his feet face the opposite way just in time to see a silvery streak fall from the sky above him. Piccolo blocked on reflex and pain seared through him like a brand had been pressed to his skin.

He howled with pain and dropped to his knees as his severed right arm, slashed from just below the elbow, thumped to the ground beside him, the limb quickly turning an ugly greenish white, like a seasick man, instead of the healthy, chlorophyll color of Piccolo's skin. He clamped his left hand over the stump, warm purple blood pulsing from between his fingers with each pulse of Piccolo's suddenly pounding heart.

"It all makes sense now," Orochimaru said with a smile as he flicked the blade of Kusanagi, splattering the ground with flecks of blood. "Gohan-kun had mentioned that he'd been trained by a brutal sensei." The Sannin fixed Piccolo with a leer. "_You_ are that sensei?"

Piccolo pushed down the pain, trying to ignore the searing in his arm, the lightning bolts of pain that kept shooting into his skull from the wound, trying to ignore the warm blood seeping through his fingers and the cold sweat suddenly on his skin.

"B-bastard," he ground out through gritted teeth. "H-how?"

Orochimaru shrugged. "Simple Kawarimi," the ninja replied, gesturing with his sword. Piccolo glanced at the body at the tree and did a double take when he realized that there wasn't a body there. There never had been. Instead, what the Makankosappo had hit was a log, which had a hole gaping in its middle, the wood black from where it had been burned by the ki rushing through it. "I never would have thought that a warrior like yourself would have fallen for such a simple trick, but I guess we all have our failings, yes?" He let out a mocking little chuckle that went 'kukukuku'.

"I suppose this battle is over," Orochimaru sneered. "It was fun while it lasted, but I'm afraid I really must hurry this along. I have a village to butcher you see and I have other, more pressing matters to attend to, so if you would just die, that would be a big help."

Orochimaru came forward until he stood over Piccolo.

_That's it you cocky bastard,_ Piccolo thought smugly, working hard to keep the smirk off his face. Thankfully he'd always had a good poker face, unlike Goku and the others. _Get in close!_

Orochimaru gripped the hilt of Kusanagi in both hands and brought all the way up behind his head, clearly intending to split Piccolo right down the middle in one single, ground shaking slash.

Piccolo shot to his feet and slammed Orochimaru right in the chin with his fist, his _right_ fist no less, taking the Sannin by complete surprise. Piccolo landed two more thunderous blows, the last one strong enough to take Orochimaru right off his feet. The Sannin rolled with the blows, turning the last into a flip that kept him upright.

Kusanagi stuck, quivering, at Piccolo's feet.

The green warrior savored the stunned look on his opponent's face as he flicked the slime and fluids from his regenerated arm. He wasn't able to keep a straight face anymore and he felt his mouth curl into a mocking grin. "This battle isn't over yet," Piccolo said, curling a finger at Orochimaru, whose face twisted in anger at the gesture. "Come on, let's start Round 2."

Orochimaru charged forward with a scream of anger and unleashed hell on Piccolo. The Namekian hadn't expected the attack to be quite _that_ fierce and he was hit multiple times before he managed to slip a blow of his own into Orochimaru's gut and force the ninja back a few steps. The Sannin proved to be just as fast on the recovery and set his fingers to sealing even before Piccolo had set his feet for the counterattack.

"Fuuton! Shinkuuha!"

Orochimaru spun around and exhaled something. Piccolo couldn't see the attack, but he could hear the air whistling as something cut through it at extremely high speeds. The only hint he had to the incoming strike was from the ripples in the air. The barest hint of a flicker would occur whenever the technique passed over something.

Piccolo decided the best option would be to get out of the way. He couldn't dodge what he couldn't see. Blue light burst up around his body, the aura a warm summer breeze against his skin, and he shot into the sky, getting clear moments before the jutsu slammed into where he had been standing. Piccolo's eyes narrowed as he noticed that trees and stones were being gouged as if by an invisible blade. He was able to do something similar with the overpressure from a really strong punch. Vegito had used it to inflict a minor injury on Majin Buu only recently.

A shiver crawled up Piccolo's spine as he watched the three shinobi below scatter in the face of their master's attack, which had been fired without regard for their safety. The warrior snapped his gaze skyward and found Orochimaru hovering above him, hands clenched at his side in a familiar stance, one that Piccolo had been on both sides of at one point or other in his life.

"Dammit!" He snarled as he realized that Orochimaru was already ready to release it. He gathered ki into his hand, the yellow light bright and obnoxious in the corner of his eye, but welcome all the same.

Orochimaru drifted in front of the sun and Piccolo had to squint before the light blinded him. He threw up his left arm in a vain effort to gain a bit more clarity, but by then it was too late.

"KamehameHAAAAAA!" Orochimaru screamed.

A second sun flashed, blue-white this time, and Piccolo found himself staring an energy ball in the face as the attack flashed across the intervening distance between them before he could do much more than realize it was coming.

"HAAAA!" Piccolo bellowed, partly in anger, partly in startled, lizard-brained fear. His own attack met the Kamehameha head on only feet from his body and Piccolo, prepared for a deadlock struggle, found himself pushing Orochimaru back without too much effort. The Sannin, it seemed, still had a lot to learn when it came to a battle with ki.

The warring ki blasts slammed into where Orochimaru was floating and exploded into a huge dome of roaring and buzzing green light, tinted so by the colors merging with each other.

Something hard slammed into Piccolo's gut and he doubled over in shock, choking down the bile that was trying to rise in his throat. All of his muscles seemed to rebel against him and his legs felt rubbery. It was all he could do to keep himself aloft just in time to see a pale white fist fill his vision. Stars flashed before Piccolo's eyes and his head exploded with molten white pain as his head snapped back. His neck seared as some muscle pulled at itself.

Something hard, a foot maybe, hammered into Piccolo's jaw. The next thing he knew he was flying at the ground, the unforgiving earth rushing up at him fast.

_This is going to hurt, _Piccolo thought, dazed, right before he hit. The ground shattered under the force of his impact, the world turned brown from the dirt and rocks hurled into the air. For a moment, the green alien was content to lie there in the dirt while the sky spun above him, dotted with fluffy white clouds and ringed by barely visible treetops and the shattered and broken ring of a crater's rim.

A figure appeared at the rim, fingers flying through a seal sequence. "Katon! Endan!" Orochimaru howled and unleashed another ball of fire at him, this one twice the size of the last by an easy margin. The heat slammed Piccolo in the face and dragged his woozy brain into coherent thought again.

There wasn't time for anything fancy. Piccolo's only hope of escape from a dry roasting was the slim crescent of sky he could see between the fireball and the crater rim, a sliver of blue and white that was rapidly being replaced by angry red and orange flames.

"I can't believe I have to do this," he fumed to himself as he reached up and pulled his turban off his head.

The world flickered between negative color and reality for the briefest of blinks. Piccolo found himself staring at Orochimaru's back through a curtain of red energy right as a column of fire roared into the sky as the fireball slammed into the dirt Piccolo had been lying in and the expanding flames had nowhere to go but up.

Orochimaru's laughter was barely visible over the freight train of sound coming from the fire. "KukukukukahahaAHAHAHAHA!" The ninja crowed gleefully. "I love a good campfire!"

He was so caught up in his celebrations that he hadn't noticed that Piccolo had gotten away yet. Piccolo's lips peeled back and bared his teeth in an expression that could loosely be described as a smile. This chance was just too good to pass up.

So Piccolo shot Orochimaru in the back.

The shinobi was flung hard into the dirt as the explosion of ki echoed off the trees. The curtain of red faded and Piccolo lanced forward, faster than he had been before with his weighted clothes on. His fist slammed into Orochimaru's back and the Namekian was rewarded with the crunch of bone and the satisfying thud of impact that reverberated through Piccolo's body.

Orochimaru's cheeks bulged as something inside him tried to force its way out. A blur shot out of the Sannin, his body deflating like a balloon with all the air let out. Piccolo was left with his fist pushed against a pale squishy sack of empty flesh. His dark eyes tracked up from where his fist was to the opposite side of the crater.

There, through the waves of the heat shimmer left by the flames, stood Orochimaru. The Sannin looked none too thrilled to see Piccolo alive and well and apparently unscathed. "How did you escape?" He demanded. "How?" Yellow eyes slithered over Piccolo's bald head, the antennae that stuck out from his forehead, and the Namek's bare shoulders, which looked deceptively slight without the huge broad cape sitting on them. The surprised anger on Orochimaru's face faded away and was replaced by cool analysis. "I get it," he said after a moment. "That cape. I thought it looked familiar. Son Gohan was wearing one just like it at the Chuunin Exams two years ago. I can see where he picked up his love of weighted training clothes."

"Gets the job done," Piccolo agreed.

"And now we start it all over again," Orochimaru mused as he clenched his hands at his sides and flexed all the muscles in his body, as if he were moving a great weight. As he did that, Piccolo felt Orochimaru's ki shoot up and the loose pebbles that were strewn around them began to shiver and rise. "I guess it's time to show the fruits of the training I've been doing since that day at the Valley of the End."

He let out a yell.

A bright burst of light forced Piccolo to shield his eyes as grit and dust were flung everywhere. Small rocks pelted him in a prickly hail, breaking apart on the Namek's tough green hide. The light lasted for a minute or two then faded away. When Piccolo could see again, he beheld Orochimaru haloed in an aura of blue-white energy akin to a Super Saiyan's.

Orochimaru flexed on hand, eying it speculatively. "I must say," he remarked, "ki may not be as flexible as chakra, but it has rush like nothing I've ever felt before." His body flickered and vanished.

A fist crashed into Piccolo's face. He went flying through air, through a hut, and caromed off a rock, making his other shoulder, the one he _hadn't_ landed on, erupt with undiluted agony. He forced the pain down, forced down the uncertainty fluttering in his stomach, and slammed his heels into the dirt, dragging himself to a stop.

_He's coming!_

Piccolo spun around when he sensed Orochimaru appear behind him and managed to catch the Sannin's leg between an arm and his ribs. The force shattered the ground to Piccolo's left, the tortured earth screaming in protest. Piccolo, however, only let out a stoic grunt and wrenched Orochimaru off his feet and flung him headfirst into a tree. The trunk shattered and the great plant, one that had stood for hundreds of years, toppled, wood creaking and groaning. Piccolo felt the earth tremble beneath his feet when the behemoth hit the ground.

"Nice reflexes," Orochimaru said as he stood up. He wiped blood away. The hit with the tree had left him with a wound at his hairline and it was bleeding profusely. "Any final techniques you wish to use before I kill you?"

"Well you've been kind enough to show me the results of your training," Piccolo answered sarcastically. "I guess I should show you the results of mine." He grabbed his ki, pulled it in and focused it into his body. His muscles swelled and his heart pounded with the sudden influx of energy. His skin grew warm as the ground beneath his feet buckled and pulled itself up. Piccolo grunted as he forced more ki into his body as his sight and hearing sharpened. Finally he let out a yell of his own as an aura of red energy flared up around him, similar to Orochimaru's blue one but wilder and more uncontrolled.

"Kaio-ken!"

* * *

><p>I'm alive! Man, it's been...what, three, four <em>months<em> since my last update. Well, this is another instance of that liquid water schedule I've mentioned rearing it's ugly head. I've spent all of July, August, and a decent portion of September working in Oklahoma and Louisiana for my job. Then when I got back, I read the newest Naruto manga chapters and Kishimoto pissed me off by making Tobi's identity be the WORST MOST UNORIGINAL IDENTITY IT COULD POSSIBLY BE! *deep breath* It kind of killed my enthusiasm for writing, but I'm back now and I thought I would return by giving you guys an all action chapter.

See you all next time!

~WingedFreedom622

**Glossary**

**Katon: Endan (Fire Style: Flame Bullet): **A big fireball.

**Fuuton: Shinkuuha (Wind Style: Vacuum Wave): **A wind attack that fires of blades of vacuum which cut into the enemy. Affects a pretty big area. The wounds might be pretty nasty too. Remember what Raijuta did to Yutaro in Rurouni Kenshin? Same thing here.

**Makankosappo (Special Beam Cannon): **The attack that Piccolo used to kill Raditz way back in the day. Used in Gohan's Dilemma by Gohan to break through Gaara's sand defenses.

**Kaio-ken (King Kai Fist): **King Kai's enhancement technique, taught to Goku when Goku came to train with him. And no, before you ask, Goku did NOT teach it to Piccolo. More on that in chapters to come. It hasn't been used since Goku and Co. found the Super Saiyan transformations, but since Piccolo isn't a Saiyan, I thought it would be a good thing for him to have.


	9. Off to the Races

Disclaimer: As usual, own nothing

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><p>"Chiyo-sama, calm down!" Baki howled as he held back the old medic as she flailed and cursed like a sailor, waving a kunai around as she tried to get at Kakashi. Gohan wondered just what was wrong with the old lady. She'd come back in to do something with Kankuro and his father when she'd caught sight of Kakashi and had attacked him out of hand.<p>

She hadn't gotten much farther than three or four feet before Baki had picked her right up off her feet and Gohan, Sakura, and Naruto had all interposed their own bodies between their team's leader. Now the old woman was squalling and flailing, trying to break Baki's grip.

"Let me go!" she was shouting, "Let me go! Let me go, letmego, lemmego! I'm gonna kill him!"

"Wow, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said, glancing back over his shoulder at his mentor. "You really pissed her off! Old girlfriend? OW!" He yelped as Kakashi hit him with the spine of _Icha Icha Paradise_.

"No you idiot," the jounin replied, stepping between Sakura and Gohan. He faced Chiyo, who stopped her struggles when she saw him, blinking as she took in his eye, off-kilter hitai-ate, and flyaway silver hair. "The White Fang was my father. He died a long time ago."

"Hey!" Chiyo said suddenly into the silence that followed Kakashi's statement. "You're not the White Fang!"

Everyone sighed.

"So," Chiyo went on as she slithered out of Baki's grasp with an ease that said she could have done it at any time, "who are you again?"

"Hatake Kakashi," Kakashi said slowly, enunciating.

"Oh, the Copy Ninja!"

"Yes," Kakashi said, tone slightly exasperated. Gohan had to suppress a smile. It wasn't often someone got Kakashi's goat like this. It was kind of funny to see. Sakura elbowed him and flashed him a grin. She was thinking the same thing.

Chiyo laughed. "Well why didn't you say you were the Copy Ninja! Kids these days. I could've killed you if I'd had a mind to!"

"Pretty sure you did," Naruto muttered under his breath. That earned him a harder elbow from Sakura.

"Sasori is your grandson," Kakashi said, wrenching them back onto the topic they had been discussing when Chiyo had decided to try and redecorate the walls with Kakashi's blood. "What can you tell us about him?"

"Strange kid," Chiyo murmured, getting a faraway look in her eye. "Even back then. His parents were killed in the war and when they died, something broke inside Sasori. He was always a quiet kid but without his parents, he hardly spoke two words to anyone. Just sat around playing with his puppets all day. He would stay up all night working on them."

"Why?"

"Trying to be closer to his parents," Chiyo replied. Gohan exchanged puzzled glanced with Sakura and Naruto. "See, the kid was good with them puppets. Always was. I've never met another puppeteer like him. Anyway, one night I was walking past his room and I thought I'd be a good grandma and peek in on him to see how he was doing." She shook her head mournfully. "He'd made puppets that looked exactly like his parents and there he was, sitting with them, making them hug him."

"That's not creepy," Sakura said, without thinking. She flushed with embarrassment and covered her mouth with her hands as Naruto laughed at her.

Gohan was going to say something when he suddenly felt Piccolo's calm and cool aura light up the sky, an invisible flashlight that no one could see but Gohan _knew_ was there. It played over his sixth sense like a harp. With it rose a second power, one just as familiar to Gohan as Piccolo's. Orochimaru was where Piccolo was and they were going at it. He could tell by the way Piccolo's ki was surging, the way it did when someone powered up. If Orochimaru really was over there, he was in for a fight if he'd gotten Piccolo _that_ riled up. The really concerning thing was that Orochimaru's ki was surging as well.

Gohan heard the sheets in his father's bed rustling as Goku wrenched himself up. The younger of the two Sons shot a quick glance back at his father and saw Goku craning to see around Naruto, as if he would be able to see Orochimaru and Piccolo fighting out his window. _So Dad feels it too,_ Gohan thought, turning back to the view outside. _Guess I'm not going crazy._

"Who's fighting Piccolo?" Goku asked Gohan. "He's strong, whoever he is."

That drew everyone's attention to father and son and the way they were both staring hard out the window, like a pair of guard dogs who'd heard something bad.

"Gohan?" Sakura asked. "What's wrong?" She went over to the window and looked out. "Something out there?"

"No," Gohan answered, clenching his fist, worried for his mentor. It was Piccolo's first fight in this world and he was going against Orochimaru. "Piccolo's powering up."

"How do you know?" Kakashi asked.

"Feel him."

"Any idea who it is he's fighting?"

Gohan snorted. "You'd better believe it. I'd know that ki anywhere. It's Orochimaru." The rest of the people in the room looked less than thrilled by the pronouncement.

"The one you beat you up, Gohan?" Goku asked, sitting up further. He looked more animated than ever now. No surprise. He was always excited to fight someone new.

Gohan sighed and rolled his eyes. "Yes Dad," he replied, a little annoyed. Every time Goku asked about Orochimaru, it was usually prefaced by the phrase 'tell me about that guy that beat you up again!' Gohan knew that his father had been itching to go toe-to-toe with the Sannin for the longest time.

"Aww," Goku moaned, flopping back. "Piccolo's lucky! I wanted to fight him!"

"You're in no condition to be going anywhere, Goku-san," Sakura said sharply. "You're still recovering from Sasori's poison!" Under her breath she muttered, "Now I see where Gohan gets it. Should be unconscious still, not trying get out and fight."

Gohan laughed. "You think I'm bad?" He jerked a thumb over his shoulder at his father. "He's a million times worse."

"Hey!" Goku protested. "It's not a million!"

"But he's not denying he's worse," Sakura muttered again.

Gohan jerked again as a third power slammed across his sixth sense. "Gaara!" Gohan shouted, running to the window.

"Gaara's okay?" Temari asked, grabbing Gohan's arm hard enough to hurt. "Tell me! Where is he?"

"Do you truly sense Gaara?" Baki asked hardly daring to believe it. Gohan could hear the hope in the jounin's voice and truth be told, Gohan hoped the Kazekage was okay as well. Still, he had fought members of Akatsuki. He shivered as he remembered how Itachi had beaten him, tortured him, and had almost broken him.

Gohan shoved the flashback to Tsukuyomi off into the recesses of his brain where it had been bound up the last couple of years. He didn't need to start remembering it now.

"I sense it too," Goku put in. "You're talking about that third power that just popped up, right?"

"Yeah," Gohan replied. "That's him alright." He frowned. "It feels wrong. It's too…wild."

"I was afraid of that," Baki said sorrowfully. "Gaara might have gotten a chance to release Shukaku."

"But why would it wait until now?" Temari asked. "Usually that damned raccoon goes nuts right out of the gate!"

"It is a demon," Baki pointed out. "Who knows how one of them thinks?"

Gohan thought he saw Naruto flinch in the corner of his eye, but dismissed it in favor of trying to pinpoint where the Ichibi was. He closed his eyes, blocking out all the distractions in the room, the others talking, the whirl of the ceiling fans, and the myriad ki signatures that filled Suna. He ignored them one after another until all that was left were Gaara, Piccolo, and Orochimaru and then he focused in on Gaara alone. It wasn't easy. If Gaara was a flashlight, Piccolo and Orochimaru, keyed up, powered up, and clashing they way they were was like trying to stare at a flashlight and having a flickering floodlight in the corner of your vision.

Near Gaara, close enough to be hidden by the violent and chaotic ki of the Ichibi was a single, half-concealed ki signature. "Someone's there with him," Gohan said, interrupting Kakashi by accident as he replied to what Baki had said. Everyone fell silent.

"Who?" Kakashi asked.

"No idea. I don't recognize him. Akatsuki probably."

"Only one?" Temari demanded. "There should be two! Deidara and…"

"I _know_!" Gohan said sharply, cutting her off. "I don't know why I only sense the one and Shukaku is blocking out everything else that might be out there. I can barely sense the one as it is."

"So what do we do?" Temari asked.

"We go after him!" Naruto shouted. "What kind of question is that?"

"And how do we get there?" Kakashi asked.

"Gohan can fly us!"

"Three of us and only two arms," the lanky jounin replied. "Unless you feel like dangling from a wire or something, that's not an option."

"Instant Transmission?" Goku asked. "I could have us there in a heartbeat!"

"No, Dad," Gohan said. His father was much improved from before, but the Saiyan's skin was still pale and there were dark circles under Goku's eyes that Gohan didn't like. His father might be able to get them to Gaara but that didn't mean he was in any condition to fight. He would be a liability. "Just stay here and rest up."

"I'm _fine_!" Goku protested. "We're wasting time!" He moved to get up and stand but the blood rushed from his face and he ended up slumped back up against the pillows, wheezing and pale. "D-dammit," he choked.

"I told you!" Sakura raged. "I _told you_! Now stay put, dammit!"

Goku quailed. "Yes ma'am," he said meekly.

"Goku's right," Kakashi said before anything else could be said. "We're wasting time. We need a way to get out there and we need to figure it out now."

"I can get out there quickest. I'll go and slow them down," Gohan said.

"Woah!" Temari protested. "Hold up! You're not going anywhere without me! Gaara's my brother and I'm not just going to sit back while you go rushing off."

"And what about Shukaku?" Sakura asked. "Can you handle two Akatsuki _and_ a rampaging demon that won't care which side you're on?"

Gohan shrugged. "Might be a difficult." He stared right at Kakashi. "It's still our best plan and you know it, Kakashi."

Before Kakashi could say anything one way or another, Baki cut in. "Temari, your fan."

The kunoichi blinked and quirked an eyebrow. "Huh? What…" she broke off, her eyes wide. "Oh! I get it now." She dashed off, shoving Kakashi and Baki aside roughly in her haste.

"Her fan?" Sakura asked. "What can her fan do that Gohan can't?"

"Not what he can't," Baki answered but before he could explain, Gaara's sister was back.

"I can use it to focus the wind," Temari said, hustling back into the room, carrying a giant iron slab that Gohan knew unfolded into her colossal fan that she could use to command the wind with devastating effect. She unfurled it to its fullest, held it out, and concentrated. Gohan felt the young woman's power stir the air.

A small cyclone blossomed into life underneath the fan, which floated upon it.

"Oh!" Sakura exclaimed. "Now I get it! We ride on the fan and Gohan tows us right?"

"You got it," Temari said with a grin as she braided some metal wire together and tied it to the fan then tossed Gohan the loose end. Gohan caught it and grinned. It was certainly some plan and it solved their problem of moving to where Gaara was. It alleviated having to fight two Akatsuki and one demon by himself, which, despite his words, wasn't something he wanted to do.

"Sweet!" Naruto shouted, bounding onto the fan. It dipped sharply under his weight but Temari's brow furrowed a bit and it leveled out again. Kakashi and Sakura were next, followed by Temari. To everyone's surprise, Chiyo decided to hop on as well and with all five of them sitting on the tool, there wasn't even any room to stretch out comfortably.

Gohan looked at all of them and shook his head, grinning. "You sure this will work?"

Temari's voice was strained. "Just get us moving so I don't have to work as hard," she snarled. Gohan chuckled to himself and gave the wire in his hand an experimental tug. The fan floated across the ground like a hockey puck on ice. Satisfied, he crossed to the window and jerked it open.

"Son…Gohan, Uzumaki…" a weak voice called. He turned and saw Kankuro was awake again, focusing on the young Saiyan with a determination that was harder than granite. The last sibling tugged the respirator off his mouth so his words weren't muddled. "Bring…my…brother…" he broke off panting before gathering himself again and grinding out the last word, "back!"

Gohan nodded.

"You know it!" Naruto crowed. Kankuro smiled, content and replaced the mask, movements jerky and halting, before sitting back and passing out again.

"We're wasting time," Temari said, watching her brother for a long moment.

"Then we better get moving," Gohan replied, picking up the wire and glancing at his father, who gave his son a grin and wave. Gohan pretended not to see the sheen of moisture on his skin. "Hold on!"

He launched himself out the window, felt the fan jerk into the sky behind him, accompanied by yells from all onboard the fan. He soon gathered speed, slowly as to not hurl anyone off the impromptu cart, and left Suna behind.

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><p>As they cruised for the battle, Gohan felt himself actually looking forward to the battle ahead. Sasori had hurt his father, had hurt others and traumatized a family and the village that family lived in. Gohan glanced behind him and stole a glance at Temari, who was holding on to the edge of her fan, eyes closed; either from nervousness over the speed or in concentration, Gohan couldn't tell.<p>

He turned back to stare straight ahead. The intense vision of his father, lying in that hospital bed, wasting away with every passing second, fighting for his life, flashed across his vision, so vivid that Gohan could actually smell the antiseptic. He could hear his father rasping for breath barely audible over the beep of the heart monitor.

It made him grind his teeth in anger. That anger settled in his gut as a nugget of white phosphorous that brought his other senses alive and made his blood boil. The world shrank down until Gohan could see nothing but the horizon ahead, which was rapidly turning dark with grasses and trees.

Akasuna no Sasori. That was the name of the bastard who had nearly killed his father and Gaara's brother. That was the name of the man who _had_ hurt Gaara. Gohan didn't care for Gaara so much as he cared for Naruto, who _did_ care for Gaara as a brother.

Unbidden, the time he'd spend in Tsukuyomi rose again and Gohan saw Itachi staring down at him again from that rocky cliff where Cell had decided to place his arena for the Games. Again Gohan saw Itachi kill all his friends and turn Gohan to stone so he could do nothing to help, even if it was just an illusion.

"Akatsuki," Gohan snarled. That burning anger within him turned into a small supernova. The young Super Saiyan felt his ki begin to stir in response to the powerful emotions that coursed through him like a drug. It got to the point where Gohan began to feel light headed, the narrowed world tinged with the barest hints of scarlet rage.

Akatsuki had done so much harm. They'd tortured him, hunted Naruto and had even done the same to Gaara. No matter their aims, they were hurting people, innocent people who had done nothing to them nor done anything to warrant their wrath or even their interest.

Gohan found that he wanted the coming battle. He _wanted_ to go up against Akatsuki again. He _wanted_ to fight the sons of bitches that had hurt his friends and family. He could feel the Saiyan bloodlust that he usually tried to ignore begin to awaken and this time he welcomed it. The last time he'd felt like this was when he'd gone up against Majin Buu and the monster had almost paid the price for it, if not for a few cheap shots.

This time, Gohan promised silently, it would be different. No cheap shots. No back attacks.

No holding back.

"I'll make them pay," he snarled to himself. "They want to hurt my friends? I'll show them what happens when you do that!"

"GOHAN!"

He jerked out of the scarlet rage he'd been working himself into and looked behind him. Sakura was just barely hanging onto her perch on the fan. Everyone was bent into the howling winds that came from whipping over the landscape like they were. Naruto was actually off the fan, holding on only because of the grip he had on one of the tines and the wrist that Kakashi was holding with a white-knuckled grip.

"GOHAN SLOW DOWN!" Sakura screamed in a voice that made him think it wasn't the first time she'd tried to grab his attention. He glanced down and sure enough, the earth below was simply a brown and green velvet blur and Gohan himself was haloed in blue white flame, flames that were tinged with gold. He had been so angry that he was starting to involuntarily transform into a Super Saiyan.

Gohan took a shuddering breath to try and calm himself down. It worked some and he backed off the speed. A little.

Naruto was able to reclaim his perch on the fan, but everyone remained bowed against the wind pressure.

* * *

><p>It wasn't too long after that that Gohan started seeing signs of battle. Gigantic craters had been blasted in the ground. They looked somewhat like the wounds that Naruto's Rasengan technique left behind. Smaller, more conventional, blast craters also littered the landscape. Only a minute later, Gohan caught sight of a hulking shape on the horizon that quickly resolved itself into the form of a titanic raccoon.<p>

"There they are!" he yelled back.

"Gaara!" Temari called when she saw Shukaku. It was surrounded by explosions of all sizes, large and small, and it was laying about itself with huge claws, probably trying to smash whatever was annoying it into a greasy smear on the ground.

Gohan shot for the earth, ignoring the screaming from his passengers. He bottomed out just before smashing himself headlong into the ground and skimmed along before planting his heels. Dirt flew like water and he could feel small stones and rocks grinding themselves into powder as his feet passed over them. He stuck a hand out behind him and felt the hard edge of Temari's fan slam into his palm.

Everyone let out grunts as they started slowing down.

Gohan had timed it perfectly. They erupted into a field and slid to a stop behind the Akatsuki attacking the Shukaku. The five passengers on the fan tumbled to the ground with various exclamations of relief. Naruto actually kissed the ground in gratitude.

Gohan paid them no mind. He had eyes only for the two men in the black cloaks with red clouds on them. Even Shukaku was secondary. One, the taller of the two, had just hurled a small white object at the demon. It exploded and did no real damage. The one who had nearly killed Goku was the one who had used poisons, not explosives.

The battle had come to a halt with Gohan's entrance and the chaos it had caused.

"And who are you, huh?" the tall one demanded.

Gohan glared at the squat, malformed man. "You're Sasori?" he called, sizing up the lump sitting in the dirt. He felt his rage beginning to rise again and a breeze erupted from him as he spoke as Gohan finally gave over his tenuous control and allowed his power to flare.

A burst of gold flashed across his vision and he felt the narcotic flood of power shoot through him, waking him up, energizing him for the fight to come. The chirping of his aura filled his ears along with the pounding of his heart and the rush of blood in his veins.

"You're not the poor sap from last time," Sasori rumbled. His head twisted unnaturally, like an owl's. "You must be Son Gohan."

"Yeah."

"What do you want with us?" Sasori asked, hopping out of the way of Shukaku's arm, which crashed down right where the puppeteer had been standing, trying to catch him off guard.

"First," Gohan replied, batting away a tendril that came at him from the sand demon in the same moment, "we're here for Gaara." Anger swelled again and with it came the deep crash of his aura, like a sea on the shore, flaring high then subsiding. "Second, I'm here to kill you."

Gohan's friends, not used to such aggressive talk from him, simply stared. Gohan could feel their shocked eyes on his back, but he ignored it, ignored the other Akatsuki, and ignored Shukaku even. He had eyes only for Sasori and he was intent on visiting as much pain on the ninja as he could.

"You?" Sasori asked. "Kill me?" He let out a grating noise that Gohan realized after a moment was laughter. "I love this world of ours. No matter the time, there's always an uppity puppy or two that needs to be put in his place."

"Enough talk!" Gohan shouted. "Let's go!" He leaped into the battle. The blond tried to block the enraged Super Saiyan but he moved fast, vanishing to one side and reappearing before continuing on. Gohan heard the startled exclamation from behind him, but disregarded it.

He yelled out a wordless challenge as he feinted high with one fist and, when Sasori started to move, brought his foot up instead and kicked the Akatsuki member in the chin. Something gave with a sharp crack as Sasori tumbled helplessly through the air. Gohan was on him, flying after him with another yell, his rage coming out. Gohan let go in a way he rarely had before. The world blurred and colors inverted. When it returned to normal, Gohan was standing behind Sasori.

He swung for the fences again, landing three sharp blows that cracked like thunder before punting the missing-nin like a football. Sasori bounced off Shukaku's muzzle.

"OW!" The demon squawked. "Hey! Get off me you bastard!" Sasori's tail had shot out and latched onto the demon's nose and reeled the puppet master in. Gohan launched himself into the air and followed, appearing on the monster's forehead. "Hey! Do I look like a freaking stage to you!?" It howled, flailing at its face as if trying to shake a fly.

Sasori didn't look hurt, but Gohan could see something falling from behind his veil. It didn't look like blood. _What is that? Looks like clay or something. A clone maybe?_ When Sasori's head moved again, the movement was jerky and uneven. Gohan distinctly heard the clattering of joints.

The tail waved menacingly.

It struck, a blinding streak of silver in the sunlight, but Gohan flowed through the strikes with high speed and grace, dodging by the slimmest of margins, only enough to get out of the way.

Something touched Gohan's cheek and started to burn. In seconds, it had gone numb and cold as the burning sensation faded.

"Gohan, it's the poison!" Sakura shouted up at him. "Be careful!"

"Heheheh," Sasori chuckled and his words came out mangled. Gohan decided his kick had definitely done something. "Better listen to the little girl. She's got it in one."

"Doesn't make a difference to me," Gohan declared, fixing his enemy with a hard emerald stare. "I'm not going to be caught off guard like my father was."

"So that yellow-haired bastard that gave Deidara so much trouble was your father? Interesting. I can see the resemblance. You're both rather fond of bulging muscles and blond hair. I wonder if you'll gasp for life as prettily as he did." Sasori chuckled again and Gohan bared gritted teeth.

"Shut up!"

Gohan shot for Sasori again. He launched a barrage of attacks, punching and kicking like it was his last day alive. His limbs were a blur, even to Gohan himself, and each one hit with a satisfying jar of bone meeting something hard. He almost thought bone on bone, but Sasori's body definitely wasn't normal flesh and blood. It was like hitting a block of wood.

One final blow, unleashed with a scream of anger, sent Sasori to the sky again. Gohan flashed after him. Sasori managed to stabilize himself and sent his tail out again. The Super Saiyan rolled right under it and came on, murder in his eyes, blood boiling with his anger and the thrill of the fight, hands clenched into white-knuckled fists.

Something tugged at Gohan's tunic but he ignored it and drove his fist right through Sasori's midsection. He unleashed a ki blast as he did, blowing the Akatsuki right to hell. Gohan couldn't see anything in the smoke of the explosion, so he powered downward in a bolt of gold, turned a quick flip, and hit the ground hard enough to break it.

Bits and pieces of Sasori pattered down from the sky, a grisly rain that brought Gohan a tremendous amount of satisfaction. He turned back to the others. As he did his chest started itching so he scratched at it.

His fingers met something metal and sharp. He glanced down.

A thin silver needle was embedded in the muscle of his chest and it glinted ominously in the light. A thick purple fluid had been slathered liberally over the weapon.

Gohan's heart just about stopped in his throat as he realized the implications of what had happened. "Damn!" he cried as he yanked the needle free and threw it at Deidara out of both frustration and fear. The other missing-nin dodged with ease, sneering at him.

"Gohan!" Sakura shouted, running over to him as he fell to his knees as his entire began to ache. The ache quickly turned into a searing burning pain and made him start to heave. He fought down the pain and shoved away the nausea. "Gohan, look at me," Sakura said. He did and she swam in his sight.

"Messed up," Gohan muttered through a mouthful of marbles and cotton balls. "Didn't think he'd hit me."

"You'll be fine," Sakura said bracingly as Naruto and Kakashi came over, the jounin facing Deidara to keep him from trying anything. Deidara didn't seem to interesting, instead taking on Shukaku, throwing explosives at the demon every chance he got in between dodging attacks.

"No he won't," Sasori said. Everyone turned, shocked. The missing-nin, minus his Hiruko shell, stood near where the spot where most of the debris had rained down. Sasori's face showed no emotion at all as he watched the group of shinobi. Gohan felt his fury begin to build again. "Son Gohan has three days left. You're living on borrowed time and soon I'll be able to tell Itachi that the little boy he was so worried about is no more."

"You bastard," Gohan snarled, forcing himself up, clutching at the huge knot of hurt burrowing into the right side of his chest. It was hard. It felt like he was trying to lift limbs made of lead. The efforts made him woozy and nearly start sweating. Of course, from what he'd seen of his father, that wasn't too far behind now. "Borrowed time or not, I'm going to take you with me."

Sakura made an angry noise in the back of her throat. "You idiot," she said vehemently. "You don't listen! I told you you'd be okay!" She pulled out one of those hypodermic needles that people use when they've been stung by bees. She slammed it into his arm. Gohan yelped and jumped away, rubbing the offended appendage. "Did you really think I would come up with an antidote and then _not_ make extra, knowing we're going up against the guy who did this?"

"I…I…"

"Jeeze. God save me from the self-sacrificing, deaf, stupid, and…"

She was starting to build up a head of steam and Gohan knew from Naruto's experience that once Sakura got going, she could go on for a while. He felt an odd rush of gratitude when Sasori decided to speak.

"An antidote," he said. "Impossible."

Sakura broke off with a huff and jerked a thumb at Gohan. "Ask him and his father if it's impossible." Gohan suddenly realized that the spike in his chest was gone, as were the leaden limbs and nausea. He flexed one fist in amazement. "I cured Goku and Kankuro both."

"Sakura, how much do you have left?" Kakashi asked.

"Two vials," she muttered under her breath. "And it's only good for a couple of minutes." She smacked Gohan in the chest with the back of her hand.

"Oof!"

"So don't go rushing in again, or you'll get yourself killed."

"We don't need to do six on one," Kakashi said. "Temari, Naruto, and I'll handle Gaara and the other one. Sakura, you, Gohan, and Chiyo handle Sasori."

"Let's go!" Naruto shouted, running at the Shukaku without a second thought. A second passed then he was surrounded by a horde of shadow clones. Temari was right behind him. Kakashi sighed, then tugged up his hitai-ate, baring his Sharingan, stowed _Icha Icha_ and went after them.

* * *

><p>Okay, here's the next chapter. Sorry about the delay. Life has gotten in the way. That and the fact that I've started writing World's Finest, the Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, and Iron Man crossover listed on my profile and it's really consumed me. I'm having a blast with it. Not going to publish it yet but it's definitely going to be a project in the near future. I have to finish Ultimate Ace first. I promised myself that I would finish that before I did anything new.<p> 


	10. Snake Puppets

Disclaimer: For real, I don't own anything.

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><p>Piccolo and Orochimaru slammed together then clasped hands before shooting straight up into the sky, slamming knees and feet together, trying to work their way out of the clench and kick their enemy into submission at the same time. Piccolo could feel the power of the Kaio-ken running through him like a shot of electricity, supercharging him for the fight.<p>

Piccolo was better at aerial fighting and managed to slip Orochimaru's guard, seize the Sannin by the shirt, and hurl him earthward in a classic shoulder throw. The Sannin tumbled, straightened, then came at him again. Piccolo shot to one side, a bright red bolt against the sky, feinted, then vanished and reappeared on the ground before blasting right back up and hitting Orochimaru in the spine with a knee.

He arched with the blow and presented Piccolo with his unguarded stomach, a target that the green warrior happily attacked, hitting with a flurry of fast blows. Orochimaru recovered, lashed out, but missed as Piccolo, moving with speed enhanced by King Kai's technique, spun inside the Sannin's guard and laid his shin right at the base of Orochimaru's neck.

The ninja howled, eliciting a grin from the Namekian, who followed through with the attack, hurling Orochimaru earthward once again. This time, the shinobi didn't recover and hit home hard enough to make the very air tremble with the thunder of impact.

_That might have been overdoing it,_ Piccolo thought apprehensively, flicking a fast glance at the lonely mountain and its mine, the only thing sheltering the village from the wrath of the two feuding titans. _If he hits the ground too hard it might cause a collapse in the tunnels._ His lip curled in a snarl. He _hated_ fighting with handicaps. It was so much easier just to cut loose and damn the consequences but damning the consequences here would mean the loss of innocent life, Shuu's life specifically, and that was counterintuitive to what Piccolo wanted. _I have to move the fight away from the village, _he realized, watching as Orochimaru clambered out of the dust below, glaring bloody murder at the hovering warrior. _Question is, can I get him to go for it?_

Orochimaru's fingers flew through a sequence.

"Futon! Fuujin no Jutsu!"

The huge cloud of dust Orochimaru had thrown up when he landed suddenly surged for Piccolo as if it had a mind of its own. Piccolo's Kaio-ken aura flashed into being as he shot for the earth below, cutting under the swiftly moving technique. He landed for a fraction of a second before pushing off again and speeding straight for his target. Orochimaru saw him coming and changed the direction of the technique.

Piccolo poured on the speed, snapped to one side in a burst of red light, then hooked around Orochimaru and hit him in the face. Orochimaru shot backwards, speeding a few feet above the ground. Piccolo went high and came down hard, slamming a foot into the other man's stomach hard enough to cause him to splinter rock.

Orochimaru popped, revealing him to be a shadow clone.

Piccolo ducked, Kusanagi's blade whistling through the space his head had just occupied. The Namekian swept one leg out, shooting blind for Orochimaru's legs. The shinobi didn't fall for it, hopping over the sweep, and cutting down with a hard overhead stroke. Piccolo rolled for his life, the blade cutting deeply, but harmlessly, into the vacated spot.

The green warrior kicked back to his feet, flowing into a simple front kick that probably would have decapitated a normal man. Orochimaru mimicked Piccolo's evasion from earlier, spinning to the outside of the warrior's attack and hacking down with the sword in his hand.

Piccolo acted fast, shortening his kick, planting his foot, and ducking low, raising his hand and catching the pommel of the Kusanagi in his palm. He stopped the blow then shoved Orochimaru back with a sharp grunt, slamming his shoulder into the other man's chest, making him stumble back a few paces, opening him up for Piccolo's follow-up punch, which catapulted Orochimaru away as if fired from a cannon.

Red flame blazed to life once again as Piccolo flew forward like a bullet. Orochimaru snapped himself upright, slowing to a near standstill in a heartbeat, too wide mouth drawn back in a poison-smeared snarl, his hands glowing with power. Ki streamed at the onrushing Piccolo, the attack backed by Orochimaru's scream of rage. Piccolo smirked. It was oddly comforting to be attacked like that. A barrage of ki blasts he could handle. He sped up, diving headlong into the attack then vanished right before he met it, reappearing behind Orochimaru, who only had enough time to begin to face his assailant before Piccolo's heel slammed into his skull, throwing the shinobi forward.

Piccolo let out a yell and ki blast of his own, the streak of yellow catching the tumbling Sannin full in the chest. Orochimaru braced against the attack, preventing an explosion, but that wasn't Piccolo's true aim. It was immensely satisfying for the Namekian to watch as he saw Orochimaru put the pieces together and shoot an alarmed glance over his shoulder.

The green warrior had decided to turn Orochimaru's own attack against him. The ki blast fired from Piccolo had been intended to throw the ninja into his own barrage. Rapid fire balls of fire drew a line of thunderclaps through the forest as Orochimaru collided with his own energy. The detonations concealed the shinobi from view, but Piccolo wasn't so naïve as to believe the Sannin was really dead. Not from that. So Piccolo flared his Kaio-ken again, gathered ki to his fists, and launched a barrage of his own.

It never hit. Instead the balls of yellow light stopped dead in the air all around where Piccolo thought Orochimaru to be. The alien kept up the attack until dozens of points of light the size of beach balls hung all around like will-o-the-wisps.

Orochimaru's ki flared with his scream of anger, blowing away the concealing smokescreen. He glared bloody murder at Piccolo, who regarded the other fighter with calm indifference. "You are a thoroughly annoying man," Orochimaru snarled. "Why are you so strong!"

"The Kaio-ken," Piccolo replied. "I should congratulate you actually. You're the first person aside from Goku and Gohan to make me use it." His lip curled in a sneer as he remembered the training he'd gone through on King Kai's dust ball after dying at the hands of the saiyans. Piccolo had opted out of the training at the time, but he wasn't stupid. So he'd pretended not to be interested in what the rotund blue kai had to teach while at the same time watching closely as Tien, Yamcha, Krillin, and Chiaotzu all learned the enhancement technique.

Piccolo had hated King Kai's training methods and therefore hated the Kaio-ken, having never used it after learning it, but decided to shelve his pride and use the technique in order to better prepare Gohan for his return to the other dimension. To use it in open combat really, _really_, _REALLY,_ grated.

"Don't get so cocky," Orochimaru snarled, fingers shooting through a seal sequence. "You're going to die now."

"You first," Piccolo answered smirking, nodding to the balls of light. "Or did you not notice?" Before Orochimaru could do more than comprehend his situation, Piccolo sprang his trap. "Hellzone Grenade!" He clenched a hand into a fist. As one, every single ball of ki shot into Orochimaru. The detonation of that much energy was more akin to a nuclear blast than any conventional explosion. When it faded it revealed a crater nearly half a mile wide and hundreds of feet deep. It stretched nearly to the outskirts of the village. Piccolo had managed to force the fight outside of it and had taken a risk using a blast that big, but it had been a necessary one. Orochimaru was not an opponent to hold back against.

Orochimaru emerged from the ground, bruised, bloodied, battered, but still very much alive. His outfit was torn to rags, his pants torn, flack vest burned away entirely, showing off a mass of scar tissue, and the tanto at his belt was naught but a warped mass of burned wood and melted steel. Large patches of Orochimaru's skin were burned severely, so severely that Piccolo actually felt a little guilty for it. Only a little though.

The Sannin lurched upright and drifted drunkenly into the air, wobbling to the lip, only a few feet from Piccolo, who folded his arms and raised a brow. _He can't be that depleted, can he?_ The warrior had his doubts. From everything he'd heard, shinobi were a deceitful lot. He'd be stupid to take this at face value, but at the same time, Orochimaru was on one knee, trembling so hard his teeth were chattering.

When Orochimaru raised his head and locked eyes with Piccolo was when he knew. Something was wrong with the Sannin. Exactly what that was, the Namekian had no idea, but nevertheless, something was wrong, horribly, _deathly_ wrong. A more charitable man would have walked away, content that Orochimaru's threat was dealt with, but Piccolo had ever been the pragmatist.

Something inside Orochimaru had rendered him unable to fight.

Piccolo would be a fool not to take advantage of the situation.

He leaned over, seized Orochimaru by the throat and jerked him up, lifting the smaller man clean off his feet. "Dammit," Orochimaru gurgled, seemingly unable to get his trembling limbs to obey him. "Of all the times to have an episode now. Kukuku. You got lucky."

Piccolo raised his free hand, pointing his fingertips at Orochimaru's heart. "Maybe," he answered. "But there are times it's better to be lucky than good." His muscles bunched, preparing to drive his hand clean through the sadistic shinobi.

His hand shot forward.

"Stop!"

Piccolo jerked short, fingernails just barely breaking the skin on the Sannin's tortured chest. He glanced over at the voice and felt his blood run cold. Shuu was on his knees in front of the kid with the dark hair, a kid who had one firm hand on the boy's shoulder and his naked sword laid across Shuu's throat with the other.

"Let me guess," Piccolo said angrily. "Let him go or Shuu dies?"

"Something like that," Sasuke answered. "Kabuto and the other one are in the mines right now. Let Orochimaru go or we'll slaughter the whole village."

"I thought that was your plan to begin with."

"His idea," Sasuke jerked his chin at the trembling Sannin, "not ours. I'm not interested in what one little mining village does. I'll trade your life for all of theirs. You come as our prisoner and we won't kill the villagers."

"Kukukuku," Orochimaru chuckled weakly. "Splendid Sasuke-kun. So then, Sensei-san…what will you do I…"

That was as far as he got. Piccolo drove his forehead into Orochimaru's nose, breaking it and knocking the helpless shinobi out in the same motion. Sasuke made to slit Shuu's throat but before he could, Piccolo tossed the limp Sannin to Sasuke. Orochimaru landed in a painful-looking heap but didn't even stir.

"He's all yours," Piccolo snarled. "Now release the boy."

Sasuke released his grip on Shuu, who scrambled away from the teenager, tears streaming down his dirty cheeks. He latched onto Piccolo's leg. "Don't hurt Mr. Piccolo!" he screamed at the top of his lungs.

Piccolo didn't take his eyes off Sasuke's. The most comfort he could offer the kid was to lay one hand on his head and gently push him away. "Don't worry about me, kid. Get out of here."

"But…"

"GO!"

Shuu jerked as if slapped then scampered off.

Piccolo was sorely tempted to attack the teen across from him, but he knew that he would be forfeiting the lives of the villagers the second he tried. He was willing to bet that that radio collar around Sasuke's neck was on and transmitting everything. All Sasuke had to do was give some kind of signal, a word, a sharp inhalation, a grunt of impact, anything to let the others know that Piccolo wasn't cooperating, and the villagers would all die.

"You have your boss back. Now what?"

"Now?" Sasuke asked, his eyes suddenly a bright crimson color. "Sleep."

Something hit Piccolo, something he wasn't expecting, something he'd never encountered. Before he could do anything to resist, the world went black and Piccolo knew no more.

* * *

><p>Gohan flashed from one side to another, feinting high before dropping low and slashing out with one leg. His attack took the feet of a puppet out from under it, sending it down, clattering with every movement. A slight weight hit his back and vanished, Sakura, using his hunched shoulders as a springboard.<p>

The kunoichi let out a bellow equal of any martial artist and drove her fist clean through the puppet's head, shattering the wood and clay with nearly no effort. Gohan didn't watch her finish the strike.

He was dealing with hundreds of other puppets. They filled the air around him and Sakura, the clattering so pervasive that the two of them had to shout to be heard over it. The Super Saiyan suppressed a growl of frustration and anger. They'd shattered scores of puppets but _dozens_ of scores more remained. They would be fighting until nightfall before they made even a slight headway against the overwhelming odds.

Gohan felt Sakura's back hit his and she let the snarl that Gohan had resisted some out.

"We're not getting anywhere!" She shouted. "Can't you blast them with one giant wave or something?"

"Sure," Gohan replied, "If you don't mind getting blasted with them!"

Sakura shot him a quick, wry, look over her shoulder. "I think I'll pass!"

Gohan returned his attention to the swirling morass of clicking and clattering forms. Chiyo was nowhere to be seen. She'd summoned up puppets of her own a little while ago and gone into battle. She'd summoned ten. Sasori had answered by summoning hundreds and using them as a shield. The vast majority had gone for Gohan, and Sakura when she'd come to back him up, and twenty or so had peeled off for Chiyo.

That had been nearly ten minutes ago and the intervening time was a mass of swirling colors, flashes of light, explosions, clattering, and shattering puppets. The really galling thing was that they weren't even that hard to take down. Gohan could have wiped out the entire group with one big pulse, just like Sakura had suggested.

He just didn't feel like wiping his friends out with it too.

A puppet flashed by, a feint, but it got too close. Gohan seized it in one powerful hand, spun in a full circle, the puppet whispering by over Sakura's head as she ducked out of the way, then hurled the weapon into another, tangling them up. A flash of ki turned them into ash and cinder a few moments later.

Sakura grunted behind him and Gohan heard the sharp crack of breaking wood.

"What are we up to?" She asked.

"Twenty apiece?" Gohan ventured.

"Sounds right," Sakura said. "Just once, I would like to go on a date that didn't involve death battles and explosions!"

"We've had a few of those," Gohan protested.

Sakura snorted. "Yeah," she replied, "and the last one involved a giant dragon!" He heard her gasp. The next second, she shot by him, working a kunai in a rapid defense against a puppet with what looked like circular saws for arms. Gohan seized her as she passed him, grabbing her arm, whirling her out of the way and added her weight to his momentum.

Gohan's foot cracked out and struck the puppet's head from its shoulders. The decapitated weapon staggered but didn't fall.

Not until Gohan hurled Sakura into it. The kunoichi overbore the puppet, slamming it down, breaking it into dozens of pieces. She hopped back into the center of the ring of debris they'd been creating.

That was another couple of puppets down, but there were still so many more to go.

* * *

><p>Naruto's battle wasn't going much better.<p>

Deidara's explosions were nearly constant, both from above, where the missing-nin crouched on a bird of clay and hurled clay bombs, and from below where he'd hidden land mines during the course of the battle with Shukaku, which was, in turn, alternating between trying to strike down Deidara's bird and trying to crush Naruto, Kakashi, and Temari.

Naturally it occasionally set off a land mine as well, which resulted in a billowing pillar of fire that would immolate anything that had the bad luck of being to close.

All too often, Naruto almost ended up being one of those somethings.

"Whaaaaah!" He yelled as he dove out of the way of yet another pillar of fire. He landed face first in the dust and rolled over, panting. Thus far, the battle had been a whole lot of dodging and not a lot of fighting. Naruto's horde of clones had borne the brunt of the explosions but with everything going on, there wasn't a lot of time before they ceased to be much help. He rolled over, panting, granted a brief reprieve as Shukaku took another swipe at Deidara. The bird the renegade rode rolled around the arm, letting out mocking caws the entire time.

"Tell me again why we didn't let Gohan handle this guy?" Naruto demanded of Kakashi when the jounin landed next to his fallen student, concerned that Naruto's luck had finally run out.

"I didn't think he could fly," Kakashi replied. He dropped flat as the Shukaku's arm swept by, nearly slamming into them. It hit the ground hard enough to fling them into the air briefly.

"Dammit!" Shukaku howled. "Hold still so's I can flatten you!"

"I'll pass!" Kakashi called back.

Naruto pushed himself back to his feet. "Isn't there anything we can do? Couldn't Temari do something about the Mad Bomber up there?"

Kakashi nodded. "She could, but I don't know where she went." Gaara's sister had vanished in the opening moments of the fight. A landmine had gone off underneath her. It was what tipped them off to the mines in the first place. Naruto didn't think for a second that Temari was dead. She was most likely hiding somewhere, planning and waiting for her moment. She was scary like that.

"What about Gohan?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi pointed over Naruto's shoulder. When Naruto looked, all he could see was a swirling mass of black fabric. Occasionally, a gap in the mass allowed him to see a flash of orange gi or pink hair but that was it. "I guess not," Naruto answered for himself.

A shadow fell over the two Konoha shinobi. Shukaku was on the attack, paw coming down from above this time. They sprang apart, right as it slammed down. Naruto snarled a curse then decided he'd had enough of the Shukaku's crap. He sprinted for the arm, latched himself to it with chakra, and skittered up it like a spider.

"There should be a superhero who does this," Naruto muttered as he climbed. A series of clay beasts, fashioned to look like some kind of stylized hyena, dropped onto the arm in front of him. They growled and yipped at him. Naruto snarled in reply. "I hate dogs," he muttered under his breath.

The hyenas came at him all at once. Naruto's fingers flashed through a seal sequence. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" An equal amount of clones met the hyenas mid-charge. They started wrestling but the clones managed to open a hole just large enough for Naruto to slip through. Once he was on Shukaku's shoulder, he turned and flung a handful of shuriken at the hyenas. They didn't like that. In fact they didn't it like it so much that they exploded, taking the clones with them. But they also severed Shukaku's arm just above the elbow, blowing it into useless sand.

"GAAAAH!" Shukaku howled, though if it was in pain or anger, Naruto couldn't tell. "You little shit! I'll squash you for that!" Its other hand tried to do just that, but Naruto managed to get out of the way.

"Yeah," he replied, sticking his tongue out at the raging demon. "You've done so well with that so far!"

"I'll kill you!" Shukaku screamed, its voice going up an octave or two. It started wrenching its body from side to side, flinging itself all over the place in an effort to throw Naruto off. Naruto's arms flailed as it almost succeeded but he managed to hold on both with chakra and his own muscles.

But it was too much movement to risk trying to get to its forehead, where Naruto was fairly certain that Gaara was. At least he'd been there the first time. Naruto hadn't seen the Kazekage hanging around on the Shukaku's forehead like some kind of outsized zit this time around but that didn't mean he wasn't there.

Still, first things first. Naruto had to stop Shukaku from trying to throw him off. Naruto couldn't do it himself but he knew someone who could. He'd done it once before even.

The landmine explosions had left Naruto with more than a few scrapes and cuts, some of them real bleeders, and one was still leaking red out all over his uniform. He swept a hand through the blood then walked his fingers through the seal sequence. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

One tremendous explosion of smoke and haze later, Naruto found himself perched on the nose of one very large and very grumpy red toad. Shukaku howled as he found himself buckle under the immense weight of Gamabunta, the chief toad of Naruto's summoned animals.

The monster didn't fall fully, instead bracing himself with his remaining arm.

"Hmmm?" Gamabunta said as his massive gold eyes swiveled down to take in the situation. He chuckled, the deep basso rumble enough to shake the leaves of some nearby trees. "Well, well, well. I remember you."

Shukaku trembled against Gamabunta's weight as it tried to look back at what had pinned it down. One gold eye went wide when it beheld the new arrival. "You! You're that damned toad from before!"

"It's been awhile, demon."

Shukaku's massive shoulders began to shake until it burst out laughing, the sound a sick parody of real laughter. It grated across Naruto's eardrums like a band of fingernails and chalkboards. "Oh I cannot _tell_ you how much I've wanted to kill you since that day!"

Gamabunta shifted his seat, making Shukaku bear more of his weight. The demon trembled and nearly fell but somehow managed to stay upright. "I haven't given you a second thought, demon," the boss toad replied. "You're small fry compared to the Kyuubi."

"Don't compare me to that damn fox!" Shukaku howled. "Now I'm really going to tear out your heart!"

Two things happened in quick succession then.

First, Kakashi shot into the Shukaku's remaining arm, a swirling blue sphere of chaos held in his palm. "Rasengan!" The Yondaime's technique didn't sever the arm, but it did blow a massive enough hole that the arm dissolved anyway, something that Kakashi's own Raikiri couldn't do because of its element.

Second, Temari made her move.

She pelted up Gamabunta's back, launched herself into the air and unfurled her fan though where she'd been hiding in the first place Naruto didn't know. The wind kicked up, swirling in unseen torrents around her tessen. "Fuuton!" She screamed. "Daikamaitachi no Jutsu!" With one wave of that fan, she hurled a massive blade of wind that could level forests for miles around.

This particular one was much more focused but no less powerful, driving the power to cut a forest to lumber through the Shukaku's neck. The Shukaku looked shocked for a moment, then its head slipped from its shoulders and slammed to earth, dissolving into a massive dune.

Temari wasted no time in dropping down. She started digging frantically, looking for her brother so she could wake him up before Shukaku had a chance to rebuild himself. Naruto landed a moment later and began helping.

They found the Kazekage quickly enough.

"Gaara!" Temari called, shaking her brother. "Gaara!"

"Wake up you bastard!" Naruto shouted.

Then he punched Gaara square in the face.

"Hey!" Temari yelped.

"What?" Naruto demanded angrily. "We gotta wake him up, right?"

"So you punched him in the face?"

Naruto took in Temari's anger for a moment then he shrugged. "What? It worked last time."

Temari opened her mouth to reply but was cut short by a small cough. Both ninja looked down and smiled. Gaara's eyes were open and they were their usual color, not the haunting gold of the Shukaku. "Uzumaki Naruto," Gaara said then coughed again. When he spoke, his voice contained a hint of wry humor. "Always with the direct approach."

"Yep!" Naruto said happily, grinning down at the other jinchuuriki. He held out a hand, which Gaara took and used to lever himself upright. Together they faced Deidara, who had landed and was regarding the two demon hosts with much less aplomb then before. Naruto cracked his knuckles. "Well now, should we get started?"

Gaara crossed his arms over his chest and fixed Deidara with the glare that had spelled doom and fear for many other ninja in the last seconds of their lives. "Let's," he said simply.

And the battle began anew.

* * *

><p>Okay, so, um...hi? It's been what, nearly a year since the last update? And what a year it's been let me tell you. I've had life just up and smack me around for awhile there but I think I've managed to chuck a few lemons back in its face that it should be less of a problem now. Or at least I hope so. And there have been long stretches where I just didn't want to write. Seriously. I would call up Word on my computer and stare at it for an hour and couldn't think of a damned thing to type. I think that's over with too so with any luck I should be getting back to a semi-regular schedule again.<p>

Finally, a big thanks to everyone who reviewed and PM'd me and kept on telling me how much you enjoyed the story. That was what got me going again and it's no lie. I'd thank you all by name if I could but the truth of the matter is I don't really remember all of the names, so I'll just say THANK YOU in big capital letters and leave it at that.

~WingedFreedom 622


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